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MODERN PUNCTUATION 

Its Utilities and Conventions 



MODERN PUNCTUATION 

Its Utilities and Conventions 



BY 

GEORGE SUMMEY, Jr. 

• » 

Associate Professor of English in the North Carolina State College 
Formerly Managing Editor of the North Carolina Review 



NEW YORK 
OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS 

AMERICAN BRANCH: 35 West 32nd Street 

LONDON. TORONTO, MELBOURNE, AND BOMBAY 

1919 

All rights reserved 



^v 



A* 



COPYRIOHT 1910 
BY THB 

OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS 
American Branch 



'CI.A5124S6 

MAR -5 1919 



TO 

ALBERT T. SUMMEY 

OF THE 105TH ENGINEERS, AMERICAN 
EXPEDITIONARY FORCES 



PREFACE 

This book is an attempt to set forth the essential facts of 
contemporary usage in punctuation, together with the con- 
siderations applicable in the choice and management of 
points. For matters where uniformity is essential, there 
are satisfactory current books by expert printers like the 
late Mr. Theodore Low DeVinne; but there has been no 
adequate recent account of structural pointing — the use 
of points that have to be employed not according to any 
existing or possible set of rules but according to individual 
circumstances. The so-called rules of punctuation, as a 
general code for all conditions, have not worked. There 
are questions of structural pointing that cannot be rightly 
settled without consideration of such circumstances as the 
progress of thought in the paragraph, the use of a given 
point in the context, or the occurrence of a structural 
boundary at a line-end rather than within the line. 

As the facts of punctuation are of infinite number, it has 
seemed desirable to concentrate attention upon practice 
in recent American-printed books and American periodi- 
cals. With a few exceptions the books cited as examples 
of modern practice are of dates not earlier than 1900 ; the 
periodicals cited are of the years 1917 and 1918. There 
is an abundance of matter earlier than 1900 or 1917 quite 
as well written and punctuated, but for the present pur- 
pose it is safest to set limits that will allow for any changes 
brought about by the general use of typewriters and typo- 
graphical machines. Except where the contrary is indi- 
cated, the examples are from works within the limits 

vii 



viii Preface^ 

mentioned. In all extracts the original styles have been 
carefully followed in spelling, pointing, and capitalization, 
except that in a few cases small capitals have been set 
lower-case. As a matter of course, styles of extracts are 
not always in agreement with the styles used in the text. 

Aside from the obligations acknowledged in the text or 
not capable of being specially acknowledged, the author 
is under special indebtedness to his wife for constant help 
with material and manuscript; to his father, the Rev. Dr. 
George Summey of New Orleans, for suggestions and ma- 
terial; to Lawrence E. Nichols, Esq., of Raleigh, for 
technical information about printing; to Dr. C. Alphonso 
Smith of the United States Naval Academy for a sugges- 
tion regarding punctuation and the paragraph; to the 
readers of the Quinn and Boden Company Press for hints 
regarding word-division and typographical styles; and to 
Professors George Philip Krapp, W. W. Lawrence, Harry 
Morgan Ayres, and H. R. Steeves — all of Columbia Uni- 
versity — for their kindness in reading the manuscript. 
Mr. Krapp's searching and friendly criticism has been 
particularly valuable. 

So far as any of the opinions here set forth are mis- 
taken, the author hopes in the interest of good teaching, 
good writing, and good printing that the necessary criti- 
cism may be forthcoming. Unquestionably there is need 
for a better understanding of an art — an art and not a 
code — which is practiced blindly or intelligently by all who 
speak through pen or type. 

George Summey, Jr. 
West Raleigh, North Carolina 
January 13, 1919 



CONTENTS 

CHAPTER PAGE 

I. Introduction 1 

II. The Nature of Punctuation .... 19 

III. The Problems of Punctuation ... 33 

IV. Paragraph and Sentence Pointing — The 

Pointing of Main Clauses .... 48 

I. Paragraph Pointing .... 50 

II. Sentence Pointing .... 59 

III. The Pointing of Main Clauses . . 67 
V. The Pointing of Restrictive and Non- 
Restrictive, Preliminary, Parenthetical, 

and "Afterthought" Matter ... 85 

I. Limiting and Modifying Elements . 85 
II. Preliminary, Intermediate, and 

"Afterthought" Matter . . 102 

VI. Series, Special Grouping, and "Ellipsis" 

Pointing 117 

I. The Pointing of Series ... 117 
II. Pointing for Special Grouping, Sus- 
pension, or Special Emphasis . 131 
III. Ellipsis Pointing .... 135 

VII. Quotation, Etymological, and Reference 

Pointing 139 

I. The Pointing of Quotations . . 139 

II. A Note on Capitals and Italic . 164 

III. Abbreviation and Etymological 

Pointing ...... 168 

IV. Pointing for Reference . w . 178 

ix 



x Contents 

CHAPTER PAGE 

VIII. The Individual Structural Points, and 

Points in Combination . . . . . 180 

I. The Period ...... 181 

II. The Question Mark ..... 185 

III. The Exclamation Mark ... 189 

IV. The Colon ....... 192 

V. The Semicolon 197 

VI. The Comma 205 

VII. The Dash 224 

VIII. Curves 234 

IX. Brackets 239 

IX. Some Types of Punctuation .... 241 

Works Listed in Tables A, B, and C . . . . 257 

Index . 259 



TERMS USED WITHOUT ACCOMPANYING 
EXPLANATION 

Compounding points. Points used between main clauses or 
the equivalent* of main clauses. 

Compounding hyphen. The hyphen used for coinages or 
half-coalesced compounds. The division hyphen is used 
between parts of what is ordinarily a solid word. 

Curves. Marks of parenthesis shaped thus (). 

Display. Unless the context indicates the contrary, display 
will mean the exhibition of grouping or meaning by 
line length, white space, indention, or centering of lines. 
Display matter is in contrast with straight body matter. 

Em dash, en dash, two-em dash. Respectively the ordinary 
dash, the short dash used in expressions like 1914-1918, 
and the double dash. 

Group. A word or any number of words not more than 
a sentence and not checked, save at beginning or end, 
by a punctuation mark. (Limitation to the sentence is 
arbitrary.) With indication in the context, the term 
will be used occasionally without the limitations noted. 

Index. A reference mark referring to a footnote or ap- 
pendix note. 

Lower-case letters. Small letters. 

Office style. Printing-office practice in regard to capitals, 
points, italic, indexes, etc. 

Open. Not set off by punctuation. (Sometimes used, but 
not in this book, to mean "light or economical in 
pointing.") 

xi 



xii Terms Used Without Accompanying Explanation 

Original matter. An author's own .words, as opposed to 
quoted matter. 

Parenthesis. Used of structure. The points usually called 
parentheses are here called curves. 

Point, pointed. Punctuation mark, punctuated. 

Roman. Koman type; perpendicular type, the most fa- 
miliar style of letter. 

Roman quote. In roman type and enclosed in quote marks. 

Roman open. In roman type and not enclosed in quote 
marks. 

Solid matter. Matter not leaded. ' 'Leading" means the 
insertion of metal strips between lines of type for the 
sake of white space. Solid typewritten matter is some- 
times called single-spaced. 

Structural points. Here used of period, question and ex- 
clamation marks, colon, semicolon, comma, dash (except 
ellipsis dash and en dash), and curves. 

Superior figures or letters. Figures or letters occupying 
the upper part of the type body, with white space show- 
ing below. 

Suspension. Checking, holding attention, carrying the 
reader over intervening parenthesis, interruption 
whether intended or not. 

Suspension periods. Translation of French points de sus- 
pension. Periods, usually in groups of three and 
usually spaced in English text, employed not to mark 
ellipsis from a quotation but to suggest an interruption 
or meditative pause. 

Text. Straight matter, as opposed to extracts, tables, and 
footnotes. 



MODERN PUNCTUATION 

CHAPTER I 
INTRODUCTION 

A Harvard professor of English, the author of a well 
known textbook on English composition, has said of punc- 
tuation, "I have never yet come across a book on the 
subject which did not leave me more puzzled than it 
found me." 

If the words are a warning, they are also an invitation. 
Punctuation ought to be understood, because it is bound 
up with the important social art of communication in 
writing. And it need be no more mysterious than har- 
mony of tone or color — matters at least equally difficult, 
yet successfully reduced to useful theory. 

The reasons why punctuation is so commonly not under- 
stood, or understood wrong, are not far to seek. For one 
thing, textbook writers have practically divorced punctua- 
tion from its relation to the larger units of composition. 
As ordinarily presented, punctuation is concerned almost 
exclusively with the sentence. It is commonly set forth 
by aid of single sentences isolated from their context. 

The single-sentence method is legitimate only in a meas- 
ure. There are numerous questions of pointing which 
can be settled only with reference to groups larger than 
the sentence. Between successive statements there may 
be a full stop, a comma, a semicolon, sometimes a colon or 



2 Modern Punctuation 

a dash; and there is no safe choice which ignores the 
meaning and movement of the passage. In questions of 
pointing, relations within the sentence are not always 
decisive. 

The current rules, moreover, are too numerous and too 
rigid. A desk book in wide use catalogues twenty-three 
cases in which the comma is "required" and six cases 
in which it is not required. Here are three of the 
twenty-three prescriptions: the comma is required to 
separate parenthetical expressions from the context; it is 
required in cases of ellipsis; it is required "before not, 
when introducing an antithetical clause." But what are 
the facts ? To group parenthetical clauses, commas may or 
may not be required; there are parenthetical clauses with 
curves or dashes, and some not pointed at all. The ellip- 
sis comma, in the proper sense of the word ellipsis, is 
rare and usually awkward. Before an antithetical clause 
beginning with not, a comma is often unnecessary or 
clumsy. If English were a dead language like Ciceronian 
Latin, there might be a full set of positive rules; but 
English is a living language. 

There are yet other misleading rules in currency. We 
are told, for example, that "when the members of a com- 
pound sentence are complex in construction or contain 
commas," one must use a semicolon. The rule is mis- 
leading because too general. There are numerous cases in 
which the comma is a sufficient compounding point in spite 
of other commas in either or both of the clauses. 

According to another tradition repeated in recent books, 
a long subject, especially if an infinitive phrase or a 
group ending with a verb, should be pointed from the 
predicate by a comma. There are cases of the kind even 
in newspapers, which in general are economical of points; 
but the rule in its categorical form is misleading. Such 



Dead Rules for Dead English 3 

subjects do not always require the comma; when they do, 
it is very often because of clumsy construction. 

By a natural association, the dead rules are commonly 
illustrated by dead specimens. To exemplify the law 
that one must use the semicolon between sentence mem- 
bers containing commas, a current book gives this: 

He was courteous, not cringing, to superiors; affable, but 
not familiar, to equals; and kind, but not condescending, to 
inferiors. 

The punctuation fits the words; but since nobody to- 
day would write such a sentence, the example and rule 
seem remote from life. Such a sentence ought to be cited 
only by way of warning. 

There is a widespread and wholesome objection to any- 
thing in words or pointing that suggests stiffness or 
self-consciousness. Save where formality is in order, 
written English has approached the conversational man- 
ner. In punctuation as in structure, students should be 
taught to use the language of the day. But too often they 
are given sets of rules which could be rigidly applied 
only to dead English. 

No Single "Working Principle" 

According to one recent writer, the "working principle" 
of punctuation is emphasis. Another maintains that the 
fundamental consideration is clearness. Others insist on 
uniformity, or on the use of the smallest possible variety 
of points. 

Though all of these views are enlightening, they lack 
perspective. Emphasis needs to be considered in ques- 
tions of pointing, but as a single working principle is in- 
sufficient. Questions of emphasis are also questions of 



4 Modern Punctuation 

clearness, the two considerations being inseparable in 
practice. And both clearness and emphasis are essentially- 
linked with usage. A period is effective as a signal of 
completion for the sentence because it is a customary mark 
for the purpose. 

There is no single working principle. In cases of punc- 
tuation it is necessary to apply one or more of several con- 
siderations. There are questions of custom, clearness, 
emphasis, movement, economy, variety — sometimes even of 
appearance on the page. By force of custom, points are 
signals which indicate certain relations. At the same time 
they are suspensive marks which check movement and sug- 
gest certain weights of emphasis. Even the consideration 
of variety is important. Noticeably monotonous pointing 
is a symptom of lifeless structure. 

To experienced writers who do their own pointing, all 
of this is familiar. They know how to punctuate clearly, 
economically, and effectively for their purposes. They 
also know that good pointing depends on good structure. 
But nobody has recently taken the trouble to put this 
knowledge into accessible form. 

Two Euling Traditions 

The current textbooks and chapters on punctuation are 
still governed by two traditions, both of them legislative 
and formalistic. The formulation of theory has been left 
almost exclusively to printers and to writers of school 
textbooks. Their most prominent aim has been "correct- 
ness"; their method has been prescription. 

If properly understood, correctness is of course a legiti- 
mate aim. It implies, for one thing, the use of marks 
within the limits of general and special conventions. But 
when applied to matters of art, "correctness" is mislead- 



Office and Schoolbook Rules 5 

ing. It is safer to speak of utility or accuracy. Accuracy 
in pointing of course requires the writer to keep safely 
within convention; but it also means the use of marks in 
such a way as to indicate the writer's meaning clearly, 
with accurate emphasis, and with whatever tone and move- 
ment may be suitable to the occasion. The fact is theoreti- 
cally familiar; but the notion that there is an absolute 
rule for every case is still firmly entrenched. 

Printers are business men, often artists as well, who 
wish to produce satisfactory typographical work at a 
profit. Their concern is not with literary but with typo- 
graphical composition. They seek correctness, consistency, 
and intelligibility, but manifestly cannot assume the 
writer's functions any more than is necessary to the repu- 
tation of the office. If printers are required to do half the 
pointing, they are not to be blamed for making rules which 
will roughly serve for average cases. The more definite the 
rules, when copy is defective, the less waste of time and 
capital. But printers' rules are not invariable laws for 
writers; nor do the current style books attempt to set 
forth the rhetorical aspects of punctuation in any compre- 
hensive way. Printers lay stress on consistency and good 
design; naturally enough they leave to the writer the 
finer distinctions of emphasis and meaning. 

Textbooks for students of English composition have 
lately treated punctuation less dogmatically; but some 
repeat obsolete rules, and nearly all ignore a matter of the 
first importance — the relation of pointing to the meaning of 
the paragraph. Instead of associating the use of points 
with the larger units, they have commonly given a series of 
rules with isolated sentences for examples. And too often 
the rules are rigid prescriptions which take insufficient ac- 
count of permissible and useful alternatives. A strict 
rule which may be harmlessly applied to a sentence out of 



6 Modern Punctuation 

action may conceal the fact that pointing varies according 
to meaning. As every passage has an individual structure 
and tone, questions of pointing are in a measure questions 
of art which must be settled by cases. A textbook can list 
the customary ways of handling typical groups, and even 
describe the effects of the different punctuation marks ; but 
the pointing of a sentence in action is a special case which 
may have to be settled on the spot. 

The relation between punctuation and the larger units 
of composition has been obscured by an innocent faith in 
syntax. The doctrine has been held that problems of point- 
ing may be settled by a series of rules for sentences, main 
clauses, and minor subordinate units. "When in doubt as 
to what mark of punctuation to use," says a certain manual 
of punctuation, the reader "has but to determine the 
grammatical construction of the part of the sentence in 
question, then turn to the rule much the same as he would 
turn to a word in the dictionary." 

The scheme is convenient and simple, but unsafe. A 
group like of course or not by any means may properly be 
set as a main clause or as a sentence. A participial phrase 
may happen to be best treated as if a main clause, a sub- 
ordinate clause may take rank as a main clause or even as a 
sentence. There may be need of classroom rules to the 
contrary, but such rules are special and temporary. In 
good writing elliptical expressions are far from uncommon. 

Punctuation is not a matter of mechanical correctness; 
it is an art. It is related to syntax, but of course for the 
sake of communication. It is kept within limits by usage, 
but within these limits is freely adaptable to circumstances. 
The sooner these facts are recognized, the sooner is there 
an end of perplexity about the "rules of punctuation." 
So far as they are a correct statement of what is customary 
and useful, they are valid. But so far as they are narrowly 



John Wilson's Treatise 7 

mechanical, and so far as they induce rigidity of style, let 
us have done with them. 



Current Works on Punctuation 

Of the numerous works dealing with punctuation, it is 
necessary here to name only a few, and none more than 
twenty years old except the great nineteenth century 
authority, Wilson's Treatise on English Punctuation. Most 
of the current books and chapters are either secondary 
and misleading or else too restricted in purpose to require 
examination here. Aside from Wilson's Treatise, a thor- 
ough book which is still freely cited either directly or in- 
directly by most writers on punctuation, it is necessary to 
list only those recent books and articles which contain 
original matter or which give rules framed by competent 
authorities for the use of compositors and proofreaders. 
Such rules, though too rigid for authors who do their own 
pointing, are of course worthy of respect as opinions even 
when they cannot be accepted as binding laws. With 
regard to typographical design and to matters requiring 
uniformity, the standard printers' manuals are of course 
the best available authority. 

The traditionally standard textbook is the Treatise on 
English Punctuation by John Wilson, an able and scholarly 
printer who died in 1868. The first edition of this work, 
based on an earlier and smaller book (1826), was issued in 
1844. A second edition appeared in 1850, and more than 
thirty editions or reissues subsequently. The thirty-second 
edition now current is merely a reprint of the twentieth, 
which appeared in 1871, three years after the author's 
death. 

Wilson's treatise is a careful and elaborate work, under 
constant revision during the author's lifetime, and worthy 



8 Modern Punctuation 

of the great respect it has enjoyed. As recently as 1915 
Mr. C. H. Ward (page 14 below) said of Wilson: 

His supplementary exposition is always clear and thorough. 
He maintains (what custom later overruled, but has now returned 
to) that the second comma should be used in John, James, and 
Harry. He perceived that a comma ought not to be placed be- 
tween a subject and its verb; and he is sustained by the best 
modern usage. He announces (though he cannot disregard the 
universal opinion of his day) that punctuation has for its pri- 
mary function the displaying of grammatical structure. Verbose 
and tiresome he may be, but his system is complete and unim- 
peachable. 

But despite its originality and thoroughness, Wilson's 
treatise is no longer a practical book. In both text and 
illustration it represents standards of practice which are 
in part obsolete. The following sentences from page 30 
of the twenty-eighth edition illustrate the elaborate point- 
ing used in the text of the book. The passage is an extreme 
case, but surprising even so. 

In nouns, we think, the comma is usually required, to show 
that the terms, which might otherwise be regarded as significant 
of two ideas or things, are designed to represent only one and 
the same; but the pointing of adjectives and adverbs similarly 
situated would, in many cases, tend, b} r the breaking-up of the 
connection, to confuse, instead of assisting, the reader. Besides, 
it should be remembered that qualifying words are seldom, if 
ever, perfectly synonymous; and that, even if they were exactly 
of the same signification, the omission of the commas could 
scarcely affect the sense. 

It is significant that in the first fifty sentences of Chapter 
I (the Introduction, straight matter with few extracts) 
there are 233 interior points in addition to the 50 terminal 
points — an average of 5.66 points per sentence. In modern 



"Grammatical and Rhetorical" 9 

American newspaper editorials the average number per 
sentence, terminal points included, is well under 2.5. 
Even in books, which as a rule are more elaborately pointed 
than editorials, an average above 3 per sentence is ex- 
ceptional. (See Table A, page 243 below.) 

The division in Wilson's treatise is into "grammatical 
points" (comma, semicolon, colon, period), "grammatical 
and rhetorical points" (interrogation and exclamation 
points, marks of parenthesis, and dash), "letter, syllabic, 
and quotation points" (apostrophe, hyphen, quotation 
marks), and "miscellaneous marks," the last category in- 
cluding brackets, reference marks, and miscellaneous signs. 
Besides the chapters on the marks so classified, there is an 
introductory account of "the importance and uses of cor- 
rect punctuation." Capitals, italic, abbreviations, and 
other typographical matters are included in an appendix. 

"Rhetorical" is used with reference to delivery. In 
the chapter on Grammatical and Rhetorical Points Wilson 
says (page 153) : 

In classifying these points as both grammatical and rhetori- 
cal, we mean to imply, not that those which have come under 
consideration afford no facilities in delivery, but that the Marks 
of Interrogation, Exclamation, and Parenthesis, and the Dash, 
have a more direct bearing on that art. 

But in respect to "elocutionary pointing" Wilson was 
wiser than his generation. He says on page 17: 

But, on the whole, it will be found that the art of Punctuation 
is founded rather on grammar than on rhetoric; that its chief 
aim is to unfold the meaning of sentences, with the least trouble 
to the reader; and that it aids the delivery, only in so far as it 
tends to bring out the sense of the writer to the best advantage. 

The more important recent books and articles on punc- 
tuation are as follows: 



10 Modern Punctuation 

Theodore L. De Vinne. Correct, Composition. (In a 
series of volumes with the general title The Practice of 
Typography.) The Century Company, New York, 1901; 
second edition, 1904. 

Especially useful for information about quotations, white 
space, typographical design, hyphenation, and the rhe- 
torical or artistic side of typography. The treatment of 
structural punctuation is brief, and is intended mainly 
for compositors. There is little discussion of options in 
the use of points. 

As Mr. De Vinne was at once a scholar and a master 
printer, his briefly expressed opinions in regard to the 
rhetoric of punctuation are unusually competent authority. 

T. F. and M. F. A. Husband. Punctuation: Its Prin- 
ciples and Practice. George Eoutledge & Sons, London, 
1905. 

Part I contains an account of the history of punctuation 
and of the older books on the use of points. The arrange- 
ment of Part II, on modern punctuation, is by points rather 
than by functions. The authors have given a separate 
chapter to the period and two chapters to the comma, but 
have grouped together the interrogation and exclamation 
marks (Chapter VI), the semicolon and colon (Chapter 
IX), and the dash, marks of parenthesis, and inverted 
commas (Chapter X). Except for clearness, the rhetorical 
considerations applied to options in pointing receive inade- 
quate notice. 

Wendell Phillips Garrison. A Dissolving View of 
Punctuation. Atlantic Monthly, August, 1906. 

A discursive essay pointing out the alternative use of 
marks for parenthesis and other constructions. It does 
not attempt exhaustive treatment of any mark or any 
kind of structure. 



"Quantitative Punctuation" 11 

J. D. Logan. Quantitative Punctuation. A New Prac- 
tical Method Based on the Evolution of the Literary Sen- 
tence in Modern English Prose. Toronto, 1907. 

Our method is founded on two facts — (1) that the English 
literary sentence has evolved virtually into the quantity and 
form of spoken English, and (2) that punctuation is essentially 
a function of the quantity of sentences. 

The whole problem of punctuation resolves itself into formulat- 
ing a simple body of rules for the use of the comma. 

Elsewhere he says, despite his opinion regarding the 
"simple body of rules for the comma," that punctuation 
could be best taught ' ' by ignoring all rules and by making 
punctuation a function of the structure (or quantity) of 
sentences." 

I discovered that as the quantity (length) of the English 
literary sentence decreased, necessarily the number of points of 
punctuation underwent a change in nature and number, until in 
the best literature of to-day there seldom appear more than 
three points, namely, the comma, the period, and the mark of 
interrogation. This happens all because the structure of literary 
English to-day approximates to the quantity and form of spoken 
English. . . . 

Mr. Logan banishes to an appendix the uses of the semi- 
colon, colon, and dash; but in his own text he does not 
scruple to use the exclamation mark, colon and dash 
together, comma and dash together, and curves. The book 
is intended not as a record of usage but as a method "for 
practical purposes in a definitively practical age." 

Mr. Logan is correct in his observation that pointing has 
felt the lightening of the English literary sentence. But 
punctuation is not a function of sentence quantity only; 
it is also a function of emphasis. For example, dashes are 



12 Modern Punctuation 

sometimes used at places where structure does not or- 
dinarily call for points of any kind ; and there are numerous 
options which involve questions of emphasis. 

The statement that in the best literature of today ' i there 
seldom appear more than three points, namely, the comma, 
the period, and the mark of interrogation" is misleading. 
Mr. Logan ignores the fact that question marks are usually 
outnumbered by both dashes and semicolons. It would 
not do to say that either dashes or semicolons are only 
"seldom" found in the writings of Miss Agnes Kepplier, or 
Mr. Harvey of the North American Review, or Messrs. 
Arnold Bennett, G. K. Chesterton, Irvin Cobb, Meredith 
Nicholson, Stuart P. Sherman, John Galsworthy, or the 
gentlemen who write editorials for the Saturday Evening 
Post — not a list of "best writers" but one which includes 
competent writers of several kinds. Temperateness in 
punctuation does not consist in avoiding the colon, the semi- 
colon, the dash, or even the exclamation point. An average 
of more than three structural points per sentence in or- 
dinary matter is exceptional; but the average is likely to 
contain eight or ten per cent of marks other than the three 
Mr. Logan mentions. 

R. D. Miller. Coordination and the Comma. Publica- 
tions of the Modern Language Association, vol. 23, 1908, 
pp. 316-328. 

A competent account of the two-clause compound sen- 
tence with comma in nineteenth century English prose. 
Mr. Miller's distinction between "grammatical" and 
"logical" connectives is used in the section on the pointing 
of main clauses, Chapter IV below. 

Percy Simpson. Shakespearean Punctuation. The 
Clarendon Press, Oxford, 1911. 



Elizabethan Punctuation 13 

According to Mr. Simpson's thesis, the old system of 
pointing, as exemplified in the First Folio and in the 1609 
text of the Sonnets, was not ignorant or haphazard, but 
flexible and mainly rhythmical. ' ' The punctuation, which 
is usually regarded as the weakest point in the printing 
of the Folio, I believe to be on the whole sound and reason- 
able" (page 15). 

For students of modern punctuation* as opposed to tex- 
tual criticism, the»chief point of interest is what Mr. Simp- 
son says of the change from a free to a systematic and 
logical method. 

The fact is that English punctuation has radically changed in 
the last three hundred years. Modern punctuation is, or at any 
rate attempts to be, logical; the earlier system was mainly 
rhythmical. 

The difference is evident; but a safer statement would 
be that in modern practice the points are more distinctly 
specialized, are used more systematically in relation to 
syntactical divisions, and usually serve logical and rhyth- 
mical functions at the same time. Points are sometimes 
used today to mark interruption, hesitation, or special 
emphasis; but though most points in modern writing are 
intended for logical grouping, they have effects on move- 
ment, whatever the writer's intention. 

It is clear, for example, that in cases of parenthesis com- 
mas do not suggest the same rhythmical effect as curves or 
dashes; that the compounding semicolon is not the same 
in effect as the comma, even when the comma may make 
the logical relation clear; that quote marks affect move- 
ment by emphasis and by suggesting a resemblance to 
syntactical breaks. Even the hyphen influences move- 
ment by effecting a shift of accent, as in some of Carlyle's 



14 Modern Punctuation 

coinages. Modern pointing groups words for clearness 
and emphasis, with inevitable effect upon movement. 

C. H. Ward. "Punctator Gingriens" : A Call to Arms. 
English Journal, September, 1915, pp. 451-457. 

Mr. Ward's article is an admirable criticism of Wilson's 
Treatise on Punctuation and of its minor successors, the 
"sections" on punctuation which for most students and 
many teachers are unimpeached authority. 

In the first place, where do we get our knowledge of punctua- 
tion? From school textbooks. Where did the writers get their 
knowledge? From earlier textbooks. If we follow up this cas- 
cade, what source do we reach? John Wilson's Treatise of 1871. 

The twentieth edition of the Treatise, brought out three years 
after his death, is the great storehouse which every succeeding 
text-maker has pillaged without acknowledgment — often, no 
doubt, plundering at second or third hand, and so not even being 
aware whence his booty had originally come. 

Part of Mr. Ward's comment on the quality of Wilson's 
work has been quoted on a previous page. 

In Mr. Ward's view the best models of punctuation are 
to be found in editorial writing. 

As for the weeklies, if you have never thought of them as 
fit guides in your aesthetic vocation, begin today to regard them 
as such. Their principles of pointing have been elaborated with 
a care, a wideness of information, a knowledge of typographic 
evolution, a love of propriety that mere teachers have no con- 
ception of. The men who formulate the system are most con- 
servative; yet they have been eager to progress toward clearness; 
they have labored toward — and have all but achieved — uniformity. 

Of certain textbooks for students Mr. Ward remarks : 

A capital book issued in 1912, full of first-hand material, still 
announces that one of the uses of the semicolon is to introduce, 



Authors, Professors, Publishers 15 

and that a comma is employed to show the omission of a word. 
Both uses are so hopelessly moribund that "authority" for them 
doesn't signify. Another manual, bearing three mighty names, 
requires a comma to separate a "long" subject from its verb — 
a pernicious principle and almost a dead one. 

With regard to the influence of authors upon pointing, 
Mr. Ward's opinion is interesting but extreme. 

Authors have never made the least contribution to the art. 
(Don't be offended by the rashness of such a sweeping negative. 
Ponder the statement calmly for several months before denying 
it.) No impression is more consistently conveyed by our Compo- 
sitions than that we refer to literature for the standard of punc- 
tuation in the same way that we do for diction and syntax. 
"Some writers" do thus and so, we are told. What "some 
writers" do is not of the least importance. The vast majoritj' of 
them are following as best they can a system that other authors 
never originated. If some of them do peculiar things, it is crimi- 
nal to call the attention of secondary students to their oddities. 
That system has always been devised and amended, not by authors 
or professors, but by publishers. 

It is quite true that punctuation is practically the crea- 
tion of publishers. From Nicolas Jenson and Aldus Manu- 
tius to Joseph Moxon, from Moxon to Wilson and De Vinne, 
the greatest influence for conservatism and for progress 
has been exerted by printers and publishers. But is it cer- 
tain that neither "authors nor professors" have had any 
influence at all % Is it publishers that have introduced sus- 
pension periods to the American public in novels, magazine 
articles, advertisements, and moving-picture screens? The 
influence of authors or professors has been felt in the ob- 
stinacy of certain obsessions, probably in the extended use 
of the dash, certainly in the use of the hyphen. De Vinne 
says of hyphenation (Correct Composition, p. 6) : "All 



16 Modern Punctuation 

the changes begin with writers. Dictionary makers (Web- 
ster excepted) claim that they do not originate changes, 
and that they record only those that have been generally 
accepted. " 

Stripped of its universality, Mr. Ward's contention is 
right. So far as uniformity is in order, a working code 
for ordinary use should be based on the practice of good 
editors and publishers. But the possibilities of uniformity 
can easily be exaggerated. Though the pointing of an 
isolated two-clause sentence may be subjected to a fixed 
rule, the same words may be used in such context as to 
require quite different pointing. This matter will neces- 
sarily be mentioned repeatedly in subsequent chapters. 

Concerning the value of proper instruction in punctua- 
tion, Mr. Ward speaks his mind emphatically : 

Any teacher who has labored systematically to teach the prin- 
ciples of punctuation, who has fought vigorously and waged war 
for years, knows that nothing else he can do produces a tithe 
of such fundamental benefit. 

Constance M. Rourke. The Rationale of Punctuation. 
Educational Review, vol. 50 (October, 1915), pp. 246ff. 

A suggestive article in which emphasis is offered as the 
working principle of punctuation. Miss Rourke objects to 
the "is used" formula and to the custom of presenting 
punctuation by syntactical rules with detached sentences 
for illustration. 

The rules are given: the student must first memorize them. 
When he writes he must reduce the forms of his expression to their 
grammatical construction, and then punctuate or not according 
to their conformity to the types named in his text. The whole 
abstract process lies definitely apart from the natural creative 
expression which training in writing might be expected to cul- 



Emphasis anti, Clearness 17 

tivate; its best success can only be a hardening of further practise 
within certain unusual forms. 

His [the student's] final method in punctuation will be at once 
simpler and more complex than if he followed the present-day 
rhetorics. It will be simpler because instead of abstract, often 
obscure and ambiguous rules, he has in hand a working principle, 
that of emphasis, whose variations are likewise simple and nat- 
ural. It will be more complex because he must always discover 
the changing demands of the ideas, facts, or feelings which he 
wishes to express; his pointing must be conditioned by the im- 
mediate and often complex substance of his meaning. He can 
never acquire a merely mechanical technique. But at least his 
problem will be single; he will be wholly concerned with expres- 
sion itself. Punctuation will have become part of his creative 
medium. 

S. A. Leonard. The Rationale of Punctuation-, a Criti- 
cism. Educational Review, vol. 51 (January, 1916), pp. 
89-92. 

In this answer to Miss Rourke's essay, Mr. Leonard cor- 
rectly maintains that emphasis cannot be considered a 
sufficient guiding principle. In his view the dominant con- 
sideration is clearness. He says of punctuation: 

Is not its principal purpose, then, fullest clearness : to obviate 
so far as possible any misreading of the sentence — to fulfil that 
aim which George Meredith beautifully states of a clear style, 
that it "may be read out currently at a first glance"? 

It is obvious that clearness and emphasis may be sepa- 
rated in theory; they cannot be distinguished in practice. 
The view which insists on emphasis and the one which in- 
sists on clearness throw light on two sides of the same 
thing. 

William Livingston Klein. Why We Punctuate; or, 
Reason versus Rule in the Use of Marks. The Lancet Pub- 
lishing Company, Minneapolis, 1916. 



18 Modern Punctuation 

A revision of a work ("By a Journalist") published in 
1896 under the game quaint title. Mr. Klein emphasizes 
the grouping function of the punctuation marks, insists on 
reason rather than convention, and treats interrelated 
marks together. But these merits are counterbalanced by 
the use of puzzling examples, by a neglect of the relation 
between pointing and movement, by the use and recom- 
mendation of too many parenthetical commas, and by the 
recommendation of rigid rules for parenthetical commas, 
curves, and dashes. The rules for parenthetical points are 
based not on usage but on grammatical distinctions and on 
the "inherent meanings" of the marks. Mr. Klein is of 
the opinion that parenthetical matter "with grammatical 
connection" (established by preposition or conjunction) 
should be set off by commas ordinarily, by dashes when the 
writer " dashes off the track of his thought for a moment." 
Groups without grammatical connection he calls "purely 
parenthetical" matter, to be enclosed in curves. The rule 
is too rigid. Matter purely parenthetical according to Mr. 
Klein's definition may be enclosed in curves, dashes, or 
commas; sometimes not pointed at all. (For the pointing 
of parenthetical elements see pages 102ff. below.) 

University of Chicago Press. Manual of Style, fifth 
edition. Chicago, 1917. 

A reference book of great value, especially for informa- 
tion regarding capitalization, division of words, compound 
words, italic, and other typographical matters. Punctua- 
tion is treated not rhetorically but in legislative fashion, 
with prescriptions for average cases. With a few excep- 
tions, the rules are applied by the University of Chicago 
Press ' ' with a certain degree of elasticity. ' ' 



CHAPTER II 
THE NATURE OP PUNCTUATION 

Punctuation is, defined in the New English Dictionary 
as "the practice, art, method, or system of inserting points 
or ' stops' to aid the sense in writing or printing; division 
of written or printed matter into sentences, clauses, etc., by 
means of points or stops." 

The use of the term to mean a punctuation mark is practi- 
cally obsolete ; and punctuation in the rare sense of observ- 
ing stops with the voice is aside from the present purpose. 
Punctuation marks are meant for the eye. Though they 
may convey suggestions of intonation and vocal pauses, 
that is not their usual purpose. Their suggestion to the 
"inner ear" is more difficult than important to estimate. 

The list of punctuation marks is sometimes held, as in 
Webster's New International Dictionary (Appendix XX), 
to include not only the usual series of marks but also the 
accents, the dieresis, the cedilla, the caret, the brace, the 
asterism ( #*% or %* ) , and the obsolescent series of refer- 
ence marks beginning with the asterisk. 

There will be no attempt in this book, however, to deal 
with all of these marks. The paragraph sign requires only 
bare mention, and there need be no further mention of the 
caret, the brace, ditto marks, leaders, or the asterism. The 
accent and quantity marks will be omitted, except that the 
dieresis will require mention as an alternative to the hyphen 
in certain words. Reference marks will be included only 
for brief treatment. Otherwise the discussion will be 

19 



20 Modern Punctuation 

limited almost exclusively to the following marks: period 
(with group of periods), interrogation point, exclamation 
point, colon, semicolon, comma, dash (of whatever length), 
curves, brackets, quotation marks, division hyphen, com- 
pounding hyphen, and apostrophe. 

Attention will be directed to the use of these marks in 
recent English prose written primarily for silent reading, 
and to body matter, as opposed to title-pages, headings of 
all kinds, legends, inscriptions, and display matter in 
general. Liturgical, oratorical, and of course mathematical 
pointing are entirely apart from the present purpose. 

Paragraphing and the use of capitals and italic are not 
punctuation in the customary sense; but they serve pur- 
poses in large degree similar to those of punctuation marks. 
The paragraph is a sort of super-punctuation, and capitals, 
like italic, are an indication of grouping or meaning. They 
will therefore be included. Italic and capitals are some- 
times alternative with quotation marks ; and the paragraph 
will require frequent mention in relation to sentence divi- 
sion and to movement and emphasis. The relation of punc- 
tuation to the paragraph has been surprisingly neglected 
by textbook writers. 

The Nature of Punctuation 

Punctuation marks are signs which indicate the relation 
and character of the words which they precede, enclose, or 
terminate. When properly and not mechanically employed 
they convey the writer's meaning — so far as it is not given 
by words and display — as clearly and economically as pos- 
sible, with the right kind of movement and the proper dis- 
tribution of emphasis. 

In tables, title-pages, or formal invitations, grouping may 
be effected by the division into lines, with various kinds of 



The Uses of Punctuation 21 

indention; but display composition is apart from the mat- 
ter in hand. 

Points inaccurately used are likely to obscure the group- 
ing, to falsify emphasis, or at any rate to be stilted and 
clumsy. What is worse, unsuitable marks may betray in- 
competence, or ignorance of convention, or even rhetorical 
vanity. 

Punctuation marks when properly used are not intended 
to be noticed for themselves. Their purpose is to show at 
a glance the relation, the relative weights, or the nature of 
the words they set off. If a point attracts attention to 
itself, this is usually because there is something wrong in 
punctuation or in structure. 

Punctuation marks do not determine thought, or take the 
place of thought ; yet by virtue of certain familiar customs 
and expectations they enable the writer to effect what would 
otherwise be difficult. They save transition words, as when 
they make it unnecessary to say ' ' this is quoted, " ' ' this is 
parenthetical," "the next clause is coordinate with the one 
just gone over," "the following words are to receive special 
notice." Skilfully employed, they often indicate what 
could not otherwise be managed save at the cost of wordy 
formality. A pair of curves may say, "Of course you, if 
not the general run of my readers, know this already." A 
set of quote marks enclosing a word may be interpreted to 
mean, "I am too refined to let this pass as my own; it is 
smoking-room slang." By showing what is interrogative, 
or logically subordinate, or ironical, or by marking different 
degrees of emphasis — usually at the same time that they 
indicate grouping — punctuation marks are a useful aid to 
clearness. The ordinary uses of the points are so familiar 
that certain effects and economies are practically condi- 
tioned on the use of the customary signals. 

Marks rightly used keep the reader from confusing ad- 



22 Modern Punctuation 

jacent groups, and from the annoyance of having to re- 
trace his steps. When misused they indicate false bounda- 
ries; or by their association with certain structural forms 
they suggest weights of emphasis which are not intended. 

Obvious as it would seem that, to man ships, officers and men 
are necessary, it has been the habit of successive Congresses to 
ignore this fact. 

The reader learns too late that ships, officers and men is not 
a series. The sentence requires not repointing but re- 
construction. The following sentence is bad because the 
main break, after experiment, is open, and the parentheti- 
cal group so pointed as to make it momentarily appear that 
the main break comes after but. 

It is a bold experiment but, taken by and large, it is not a 
success.— The Dial, Feb. 14, 1918. 

John Muir accompanied this searching party and his private 
journals, letters published at the time in the San Francisco "Bul- 
letin," and his contributions to the government reports of the 
Corwin's explorations have been skilfully woven by the editor 
into a connected narrative of the summer's cruise amidst the ice- 
floes, fogs, and storms of these little known seas. — The Dial, 
Feb. 14, 1918. 

The pointing is bad, the structure haphazard; given this 
wording, heavy punctuation is necessary to clearness. In 
the following sentence the semicolon suggests the beginning 
of a new main clause. 

Then there was an investigation, some indictments; and an 
ordinance designed to prevent similar impositions on the public 
in the future. 

As a general though not invariable rule, punctuation 
marks do not separate sentence-elements which are so 



Points and Wording 23 

closely related as subject and verb, verb and direct object, 
or noun and necessary modifier. An apparent exception is 
the use of marks where matter to be separately grouped 
intervenes between elements ordinarily phrased together. 
In the following sentence the points help the reader to 
bridge the gap between subject and verb by marking the 
infinitive phrase as parenthetical and thereby letting it be 
seen that the remaining words are in natural sequence, 
continuous save for the intervening parenthesis. 

A reporter, to tell the plain truth, cannot afford to be above 
his work or "above his job," as the New York newsgatherers 
say. — John L. Given, Making a Newspaper, p. 185. 

What Punctuation Is Not 

Punctuation is far from being a mere mechanical device. 
It is mechanical as* a matter of course, like word-spacing or 
the use of initial capitals; but punctuation is much more 
than that. It is an integral part of written composition. 
The pointing must fit the words. What is equally impor- 
tant, words must often be so economized or managed that 
grouping marks will not be required too often or at incon- 
venient places. Often the only way to avoid awkward 
pointing is to revise the phrasing. 

It is a commonplace, but one which requires repeating, 
that punctuation is not a panacea for bad composition. 
Points may reveal the meaning of a badly constructed sen- 
tence, but in that case they will also reveal the badness 
of the structure. The remedy for faulty structure is re- 
vision. 

Structural, Editorial, and Word Pointing 

In general, the name structural pointing may conven- 
iently be given to the use of sentence points, comma, semi- 



24 Modern Punctuation 

colon, colon, curves, and the dash, except the en dash and 
ellipsis dashes. Quote marks, brackets, and ellipsis dots 
and asterisks may be called editorial points. The apos- 
trophe, the abbreviation period, hyphens, the en dash, and 
the ellipsis dash may be classified as etymological or word 
points. Non-structural points, especially quotes or brack- 
ets, may give the effect of structural grouping, but as a 
rule the distinctions are clear. The structural points are 
far less subject to rule than editorial or word points. They 
are more difficult, and for both meaning and emphasis are 
usually more important. 

" Grammatical' ' and "Rhetorical" Points 

The inaccurate and misleading classification of punctua- 
tion marks into grammatical and rhetorical points, or into 
grammatical and grammatical-rhetorical, is still current. 

The New Standard Dictionary distinguishes grammatical, 
rhetorical, and etymological punctuation, and punctuation 
for reference. 

Webster's New International Dictionary says that 
"Punctuation is chiefly done with four points" (period, 
colon, semicolon, and comma), and describes the other 
points (interrogation, exclamation, parentheses, dash, and 
brackets) as being "partly rhetorical and partly gram- 
matical. ' ' 

The Century Dictionary distinguishes "the points used 
for punctuation exclusively" (period, colon, semicolon, 
comma) from those that "serve also for punctuation in the 
place of one or another of these, while having a special 
rhetorical effect of their own" (interrogation and exclama- 
tion points). The dash is said to be "also used, either 
alone or in conjunction with one of the preceding marks, 
in some cases where the sense or the nature of the pause 



Rhetorical Nature of Punctuation 25 

required can thereby be more clearly indicated/ ' The 
obvious objections to the Century's account of the matter 
are (1) that the colon and the semicolon have a no less 
"special rhetorical effect" than the interrogation and ex- 
clamation points, (2) that the period, colon, semicolon, and 
comma are used no more "exclusively for punctuation" 
than the other points. That the question and exclamation 
marks are stronger than certain other marks is quite irrele- 
vant to the classification. 

The fundamental truth is that all structural punctuation 
marks in straight reading matter are rhetorical points, 
because they are at once grouping points and (intentionally 
or otherwise) emphasis points , with effects on movement. 

Definitions of rhetoric and rhetorical for the present pur- 
pose necessarily include the mechanics of writing. The 
definitions are given in terms of printing, but will apply to 
manuscript without essential change. The principal dif- 
ference is that in printing a higher mechanical excellence 
is expected. 

As defined for printed matter, rhetoric is the art of com- 
munication by means of printed lexicological units (com- 
monly called words and word-groups), with the incidental 
aid of white space, symbols, and other mechanical devices 
such as the use of different type faces, of color, rules, bor- 
ders, decorations, and of initial and other capitals. It is 
necessary to take into account even the kind of paper, the 
size and kind of text type, the presswork, the binding, and 
design. 

An important though imponderable element of prestige 
is conveyed by the names of the author, the publisher, and 
sometimes of the printer. Prestige is necessarily a variable 
element, subject to continual alteration. 

Communication means the process of imparting informa- 
tion, or giving pleasure, or inducing some one to share a 



26 Modern Punctuation 

feeling or pursue a certain course of action — any or all of 
these, as the writer may desire. 

White space includes the spacing of symbols, words, sen- 
tences, even letters at times; the spacing (or "leading") 
of lines; paragraph and other indentions, space left at 
paragraph ends, and extra space sometimes left between 
paragraphs; space to the right and left of centered lines; 
and blank or partly blank pages. The rhetorical value of 
white space — a matter clearer to printers than to most 
teachers and writers — appears by absence when words are 
unspaced, when the page is crowded to the edges, or when 
matter which ought to be in half a dozen paragraphs is 
set as an unbroken phalanx paragraph. White space judi- 
ciously employed makes communication easier and more 
pleasurable. It is for this reason that publishers use so 
much paper for well-proportioned margins, and that ad- 
vertisers pay heavily for space which they do not fill with 
words. White space may be considered in three aspects: 
as a removal of obstructions, so that the reader may read ; 
as a means of indicating transitions, e. g. from paragraph 
to paragraph; and as an important element in typo- 
graphical design. 

Symbols are arbitrarily taken here to exclude complete 
words used in their ordinary logical sense, and to include 
chapter and section numbers, letters or numbers in formal 
lists, arbitrary marks of all kinds not otherwise included, 
the paragraph sign (rarely employed in text matter), ref- 
erence signs (superior figures, superior letters, etc.), and 
punctuation marks. 

Rhetorical means aiding or defeating in whatever degree 
any of the aesthetic or practical aims of writing. More 
specifically, it means aiding or hindering communication 
in respect to clearness, economy, ease, agreeableness, force, 
persuasiveness, or whatever may be desired. A rhetorical 



A Rhetorical Instrument 27 

use of a point is simply an instrumental use; instinctive 
perhaps, but in its degree effective, whether for or against 
any of the purposes of writing. 

In some formal uses the rhetorical effect of a point may 
be practically nil, as where points are used at line-ends in 
the superscription of a letter. But points in text matter 
are properly and usually rhetorical, for good or evil, by 
exhibiting grouping, relations, character, and relative 
weights. 

To be sure, there are survivals of unnecessary points 
under the influence of customs which have lost their utility ; 
but even in such cases there is some offense to taste. A 
typical case of the kind is the use of the comma with dashes 
which would do as well alone ; another is the use of the dash 
with a colon (e. g. after a "Dear Sir" or before a quota- 
tion) where the colon is entirely competent for the work. 
Though the effect x)f such excrescences may be negligible to 
most readers, it would be better art to get rid of them. The 
Manual of Style of the University of Chicago Press says 
that ordinarily the dash should not be used in combination 
with other points — a typical piece of evidence that such 
cases are not matters of indifference. 

No one would attempt to deny that marks are often 
improperly used by writers who in other respects are com- 
petent craftsmen ; or that many writers leave much of their 
pointing to secretaries and printers ; or that many readers 
are insensitive to punctuation. It might even be proved 
that some people are rather proud of being ignorant of 
punctuation, just as certain persons feel themselves supe- 
rior by virtue of their cryptic handwriting. These are 
data for the sociologist ; they are no proof that punctuation 
marks are not rhetorical. 

The art of communication through printed matter in- 
cludes not merely the writer 's words but also the mechanics 



28 Modern Punctuation 

of presentation, in which punctuation has an important 
part. But there still lingers the delusion — with a sufficient 
admixture of truth to keep it alive — that punctuation may 
be merely "grammatical." 

If it is to be held that a point is grammatical without 
being rhetorical, it is necessary to divorce grammar from 
thought and to make rhetorical include only the unusual 
or highly emphatic. Points are rhetorical because they 
are instrumental ; because when properly used they help to 
make writing intelligible and otherwise effective. 

It is true that some marks are more emphatic than others, 
and it is true that pointing does not always correspond to 
syntactical relations; but a comma is no less strictly rhe- 
torical than a dash or exclamation point. A comma in 
reading matter is a rhetorical instrument, or an obstruc- 
tion. 

The interrogation and exclamation points are admit- 
tedly rhetorical ; but since the other marks have been denied 
the possession of rhetorical character, it is necessary to put 
them under examination. If they aid or hinder the aims 
of communication in any degree whatsoever, they are rhe- 
torical. 

The terminal period is rhetorical because it announces 
that any following matter is a new sentence — an assertion, 
exclamation, question, or injunction, or an expression (like 
Of course, or Indeed? or Yes) which is given the formal 
rank ordinarily reserved to the full sentence. The period 
marks the boundary between fact A and fact B ; or it may 
indicate that the preceding group belongs to the whole 
paragraph rather than to one of the constituent subtopics. 
The rhetorical nature of the period is perhaps best seen in 
the use of short sentences for sharp emphasis in the neigh- 
borhood of longer sentences. A common misuse of the 
period, and one which displays its rhetorical nature, is the 



Special Rhetorical Functions 29 

pointing of several successive predications in such a way 
as to give them equal formal rank, irrespective of their 
relative value, as if each remark were a jewel of wisdom 
worthy to be set as a solitaire. 

The colon in its ordinary use, as introducing a quotation 
or list, is rhetorical because it indicates grouping and at 
the same time serves as a formal emphasis mark, as when 
it ends an introduction and emphatically calls attention to 
whatever may follow. 

The semicolon is rhetorical like the other marks. It may 
aid clearness by marking an antithesis or by managing a 
swift passage from one statement to another without the 
agency of a link-word. It may also make the grouping 
clear by indicating the larger breaks where the lesser breaks 
are pointed with commas, as in lists of names with ad- 
dresses. 

The comma is usually the lightest point of the series ; but 
its rhetorical character is evident. It may make all the 
difference between clearness and obscurity; if used too 
often it may make writing formal, absurd, or unintelligible. 
"The great enemies to understanding anything printed in 
our language, " says Henry Alford in The Queen's English, 
"are the commas." As a matter of course he means un- 
necessary commas. 

The ordinary em dash and the long dash are clearly 
rhetorical. They mark interrupted or broken sentences, 
changes of tack, emphatic apposition, or emphatic paren- 
thesis. The en dash, as in the expression pages 38-55, is 
much like the hyphen in effect. 

Curves enclose parenthetical matter (dates, page ref- 
erences, explanations) for more or less rapid notice as not 
formally structural. The use of curves may degenerate 
into a mannerism, with injurious effects on both tone and 
movement. 



30 Modern Punctuation 

Brackets ordinarily enclose editorial matter interpolated 
in quotations. They are rhetorical because an instrument 
of communication. They say to the reader, "Here are the 
boundaries of an interpolation. ' ' 

Even quote marks are rhetorical. Words enclosed in 
quote marks are more emphatic than open words, the quotes 
having a suspensive effect resembling that of structural 
points. Quote marks may give excessive emphasis, may 
check movement awkwardly, may give an air of self- 
consciousness. The use of quote marks in admiration of 
one's own learning or literary skill is perhaps the worst 
display of bad taste which punctuation marks permit. 

It is often better to cite in substance than directly, or 
else to maneuver sentences so as to make the quote mark 
come at a sentence or clause break. A quote mark in- 
troduced where the syntax is continuous may be awkward. 

Matthew Arnold defined "the modern element in literature" 
as the ability to render an adequate interpretation of the various 
activities of modern life, "to see life steadily, and to see it whole." 

The second quoted group is better managed than the first. 

Even word points are rhetorical, though so much under 
the control of orthographic rules as sometimes to be almost 
purely formal in use. 

The apostrophe aids clearness by marking words as 
genitives or contractions. And though the meaning may 
be clear without the apostrophe in a given case, the omis- 
sion may be annoying — as to some readers of Mr. Bernard 
Shaw's prefaces, where don't and people's appear some- 
times as dont and peoples. There is so much respect for 
orthography among readers, both learned and otherwise, 
that even apostrophes may count in the total effect. The 
omission of a customary apostrophe is likely to be noticed, 
and attributed to eccentricity or ignorance. 



Communication versus Syntax 31 

The abbreviation period is rhetorical so far as useful for 
clearness and for avoidance of orthographical offense. As 
between per cent and per cent, (both forms in good current 
use) there may be no rhetorical difference except to per- 
sons observant of printing styles. But alternation between 
the two forms in a single book would be a disgrace to the 
printer. 

The compounding hyphen, as in extemporaneous or half- 
united compounds, is useful for clearness. Horse whipped 
by angry woman is obscure; horse-whipped by angry 
woman is clear. As between hyphened and solid com- 
pounds (like proof-reader and proofreader) there is much 
latitude of good use. There may be little or no difference 
of effect save on the ground of consistency. 

Even the division hyphen is rhetorical, though seldom by 
intention. Witness the printers' rules against numerous 
divisions and against syllable-splitting (like dy-eing or 
des-ign) which may puzzle the reader even momentarily. 
Authors cannot make provision against line-breaks ; in this 
as in certain other typographical matters they depend on 
the printer. 

The punctuation marks, when considered with reference 
to the forms and relations which they exhibit or suggest, 
are all of them rhetorical, in the nature of the case, by 
design or by inadvertence. To treat them as merely 
mechanical, or to imagine that the use of points can always 
be reduced to categorical correctness, is to misconceive their 
nature and utility. 

The rhetorical nature of the marks must be insisted on, 
because the grammatical viewpoint — legitimate in itself — 
has laid emphasis upon formal syntax rather than upon 
communication. The field of syntax is the sentence, and 
the sentence has in practice been the field of discussion for 
the "rules of punctuation." But questions of punctuation 



32 Modern Punctuation 

frequently require decision on grounds of utility in the 
paragraph. 

The following words, if dragged out of their context, may 
be punctuated "correctly" in either of these ways: 

Their hobbies do not spread desolation over the social world. 
Their prejudices do not insult our intelligence. 

Their hobbies do not spread desolation over the social world; 
their prejudices do not insult our intelligence. 

But the passage (from Miss Agnes Kepplier's Americans 
and Others, page 161) is and ought to be differently 
pointed. Written as two sentences, or as one sentence with 
semicolon, the two predications as parts of the paragraph- 
would be misrepresented. 

There are men and women — not many — who have the happy 
art of making their most fervent convictions endurable. Their 
hobbies do not spread desolation over the social world, their pre- 
judices do not insult our intelligence. They may be so "abreast 
with the times" that we cannot keep track of them, or they may 
be basking serenely in some Early Victorian close. They may 
believe buoyantly in the Baconian cipher, or in thought trans- 
ference, or in the serious purposes of Mr. George Bernard Shaw, 
or in anything else which invites credulity. They may even ex- 
press their views, and still be loved and cherished by their friends. 

There might be a number of changes in punctuation 
under the customary rules, if the sentences of this para- 
graph were isolated; but such experiments would be like 
anatomical experiments to determine a question of physiol- 
ogy. However useful for supplementary purposes, they 
might omit certain essential data. The considerations per- 
tinent to the case will be treated in the following chapter. 



CHAPTER III 
THE PROBLEMS OF PUNCTUATION 

The problem in every question of punctuation is twofold. 
The writer must keep within the limits of safety set by 
convention and consequent expectation. At the same time, 
in the same act of writing, he has to employ the marks in 
organic relation to thought and form, with reference to the 
mechanical and human conditions of the case. Certain 
mechanical conditions which may have to be considered 
are paragraph length, division into lines, and the office 
styles of individual publishers. Among the human condi- 
tions are the expected class of readers, the tone and man- 
ner suitable to the occasion, and the probable conditions of 
reading. 

The options permitted by current usage, with the con- 
siderations of choice, will be treated in the following chap- 
ters under such heads as Sentence Pointing, Compounding, 
and Series Pointing. Meantime it is necessary to notice 
certain general considerations. These may be reduced to 
convention and utility. 

Convention in Punctuation 



Convention in the use of marks is not absolutely fixed, 
but so far as definite it can be ignored only at peril. A 
writer does well to keep safely within convention because 
points used in their customary way do their proper work 
instead of attracting attention to themselves, and because 

33 



34 Modern Punctuation 

systematic punctuation, where uniformity matters, will help 
to convey the impression that the writer knows his own 
mind. 

Conventions may be widespread, like the venerable rule 
that a sentence shall end with a full stop. On the other 
hand they may be local or special. Practice may vary even 
within a single office, as when styles for law printing differ 
from those applied to miscellaneous work. 

Office or private conventions save time and prevent un- 
certainty. It is well, for example, to decide the order of 
punctuation marks which occur together, the pointing to 
be used before quotations formally introduced, the kind and 
number of points for ellipsis, and the pointing of a series 
such as came, saw, and conquered. In such matters and 
also in the setting of side-heads, credits, and book titles, 
consistency is necessary. 

Temporary or local restrictions are sometimes imposed 
for a special purpose, as when school children are for- 
bidden to begin a sentence with but or and, or to write as a 
sentence anything less than a full sentence with subject and 
predicate. Such restrictions may be usefully imposed long 
enough to make the pupil learn the nature of the sentence, 
provided he knows that the restriction is temporary. In 
like manner newspaper reporters may be forbidden to use 
curves for certain purposes or to make any use of anti- 
thetical semicolons. 

But convention is less definite than students have been 
led to suppose, especially with regard to structural punc- 
tuation. The pointing of a given sentence may have to be 
determined in the light of an entire paragraph or longer 
passage. 

To name only one case, a parenthetical element within a 
sentence may be open, or may be pointed in a variety of 
ways — with commas, dashes, commas and dashes together, 



Tyrannical Rules 35 

curves, or brackets. And this wide range of choice — of 
course limited narrowly in some cases — is typical of the 
conditions which make punctuation a matter of intelligence. 

Neither rule nor logic determines all questions of point- 
ing. In the writings of the editorial gentlemen who are 
supposed to have "all but achieved uniformity" in point- 
ing, preliminary expressions of similar length and form 
are sometimes open, sometimes pointed. The end of a series 
modifying a following word may be pointed or open. 
Clause breaks in sentences of equal length are pointed dif- 
ferently according to circumstances. Modern pointing is 
logically consistent only by comparison with the older 
pointing. Where obedience to a custom stands in the way 
of good movement and is not an aid to clearness, the custom 
goes by the board. 

For this reason a printer's office styles, if mechanically 
applied without reference to varying circumstances, may 
be tyrannical. One writer on punctuation has lamented 
that ' ' the publishing house has its system of pointing, from 
which only eternal vigilance can protect the intelligent 
writer. ' ' The careless writer deserves comparatively small 
consideration; in fact he may need to be saved from him- 
self. But the systematic and accurate writer is entitled to 
whatever liberty of pointing his meaning may require. 
According to Mr. De Vinne (Correct Composition, p. 243), 
"it is the author's right to use his own system, and the 
compositor must neither make nor suggest any change. 
If the proof-reader thinks that the author 's system of point- 
ing will confuse the reader, he may (but it requires tact to 
do so) invite the attention of the author to its vagueness. 
There his duty ends. He must accept the author's decision. 
Meddling with an educated author 's punctuation is always 
injudicious, and may be regarded as impertinent." 

Most problems of punctuation, aside from the easy one 



36 Modern Punctuation 

of finding what is permissible, may be reduced to questions 
of (1) clearness, (2) management of emphasis, and (3) 
movement, including economy and variety. 



The Consideration of Clearness 

The use of punctuation marks for clearness cannot be 
separated from their use for rhetorical purposes in general. 
Clearness, movement, variety, and persuasiveness are in- 
extricably related. But as a matter of convenience the 
relation of points to clearness may be momentarily isolated. 

Punctuation marks when intelligently used show group- 
ing and relations. Loose parentheses or elements clearly 
non-restrictive may be best understood if pointed off. On 
the other hand, elements closely related for definition or 
structure are usually grouped together, not separated by 
a punctuation mark. Between subject and verb, verb and 
object, preposition and object, verb and complement, or 
noun and necessary modifier, punctuation is usually objec- 
tionable, unless to set off intervening matter. In the first 
of the sentences following, commas make the grouping 
clear. The comma in the second is an obstruction. 

Thomas Day, the author of the History of Sandford and Mer- 
ton, was an eccentric philanthropist. 

To save a considerable part of one's income, is ordinarily both 
wisdom and duty. 

Sometimes a point is needed to prevent an awkward hitch. 

When he fired, the bullet struck square into the mark. 
I took it, for I had no option. 

Six months before I had seen that same region white with snow, 
yet blazing with death. 



Questions of Emphasis 37 

In the first of these sentences the comma makes it clear that 
bullet is not the object of fired but the subject of struck. 
In the second, the comma shows instantly that for is not a 
preposition but a clause link. In the third, which needs a 
point after Six months before, the grouping is not clear. 

But it may happen in such cases that the form of the sen- 
tence should be changed so as to make pointing unnecessary, 
and in order to make the meaning safe against the reader. 
In the classic case of the telegram "No. Price too high," 
which was delivered in the form ' ' No price too high, ' ' with 
expensive results, the pointing made a difference so vital 
that nobody except by gross miscalculation would trust his 
meaning to such a form, points or no points. Telegrams as 
now delivered are commonly typewritten in capitals with- 
out points, or with the names of the points written as words. 

When correcting in manuscript or type is difficult for 
lack of time, a direct style with little pointing is desirable. 
Otherwise the compositor may ruin the effect or obscure 
the meaning. 

The Consideration of Emphasis 

Questions of punctuation are in large measure questions 
of emphasis. This is not because points are often used for 
emphasis alone, but because grouping-points suggest certain 
relations and roughly suggest certain weights of emphasis. 
The semicolon is a coordinating point, effecting an ap- 
proximately equal distribution of emphasis; parenthetical 
dashes are more emphatic than parenthetical commas; the 
anticipatory colon throws the weight of emphasis upon 
following matter. As a matter of course, the effect of a 
point may be aided or may be countered by the effect of 
wording. So far as pointing is concerned, clauses sepa- 
rated by a semicolon are of equal weight; but position or 
length may make more difference than pointing. 



38 Modern Punctuation 

The problem, not always simple, is to stamp everything 
with its exact value. If a group not worth being displayed 
as a sentence is so displayed, it is overemphasized. If a 
relative clause which ought to be rapidly passed over is so 
worded as to require commas, it is overemphasized. If a 
point required for clear grouping is rhetorically inconven- 
ient, the chances are that something is awkwardly em- 
phasized. In this case the next step is to revise. 

In the following sentence the words except sentimentality 
might be left open, but with different effect. The group- 
ing and movement would be different, and except senti- 
mentality would be lighter. 

The schools have abandoned the rod as a promoter of educa- 
tional efficiency, but they have put nothing, except sentimentality, 
in its place. — E. J. Swift, Youth and the Race, p. 38. 

Except sentimentality is formally unnecessary or paren- 
thetical; actually it is more emphatic than if an open 
restrictive group. The pointing also gives additional weight 
to the group they have put nothing. 

Other things equal, the strength of a point in emphasiz- 
ing juxtaposed matter will depend partly on the conven- 
tional rating of the mark, partly on the pointing of the 
whole passage in question. Within the limits of a single 
sentence a semicolon is superior to the comma and usually 
inferior to the colon. The comma is ordinarily outranked 
by the dash. Among full stops the less frequent question 
and exclamation marks commonly outweigh the more fre- 
quent period; in the case of parenthetical points, both 
curves and dashes usually outrank the comma. But if a 
writer makes extravagant use of the stronger or less com- 
mon points, the reader learns to take them more calmly than 
under normal conditions. 



Weight of Points Inconstant 39 

For purposes of emphasis a full stop on page 1 does not 
necessarily outrank a dash or semicolon on page 2, though 
the full stop is theoretically superior. A comma misused 
may get more attention than a semicolon in due place. 
A pair of curves enclosing a page reference for rapid 
notice — as if to say, "Here it is if you want it" — will be 
the lightest marks because the best. But a pair of curves 
may enclose a remark which though formally parentheti- 
cal is actually important. In the following sentence the 
parenthetical or afterthought group in curves is actually 
the most emphatic part of the sentence. 

Be like the Greeks, is the sum of M. France's message; since 
all is illusion and truth escapes us, let us pursue beauty (he should 
have said, be like certain Greeks, especially certain Greek soph- 
ists). — Irving Babbitt, Masters of Modern French Criticism, 
p. 320. 

Emphasis may vary in kind or direction. There is em- 
phasis by sharpness and surprise, and emphasis by weight 
of detail or by suspension. The last sentence of the fol- 
lowing paragraph has at once abrupt emphasis and the 
concentrated weight of the preceding sentences. 

There is a word, a "name of fear," which rouses terror in the 
heart of the vast educated majority of the English-speaking 
race. The most valiant will fly at the mere utterance of that 
word. The most broad-minded will put their backs up against 
it. The most rash will not dare to affront it. I myself have 
seen it empty buildings that had been full; and I know that 
it will scatter a crowd more quickly than a hose-pipe, hornets, 
or the rumour of plague. Even to murmur it is to incur solitude, 
probably disdain, and possibly starvation, as historical examples 
show. The word is "poetry." — Arnold Bennett, Literary Taste, 
page 71. 



40 Modern Punctuation 

By means of suspension, commas and dashes aiding in 
the effect, the latter part of the following sentence is given 
concentrated emphasis: 

While the growth of advertising has been exceedingly rapid r 
accompanied by a proportionate increase of expenditure, and 
while vast sums have been spent in securing the best in advertis- 
ing copy, the question of the presentation of this copy — the 
typography of the advertisement — has been to a great extent 
neglected. — F. J. Trezise, The Typography of Advertisements, 
Preface. 

The anticipatory colon ordinarily checks movement in 
order to call attention to what follows, whereas the semi- 
colon when used as a balancing point in a two-clause sen- 
tence emphasizes the parts about equally. 

But if there is any sincerity in Mr. [George] Moore's personal 
writings, we may be sure that, if called upon, he would moralize 
the tale in some such fashion as this: Don't go in for the fast 
life if you haven't the stamina to stand the pace. — Stuart P. 
Sherman, On Contemporary Literature, p. 135. 

He feasts because life is not joyful; he revels because he is 
not glad. — G. K. Chesterton, Heretics, p. 111. 

Our modern politicians claim the colossal license of Caesar 
and the Superman, claim that they are too practical to be pure 
and too patriotic to be moral; but the upshot of it all is that a 
mediocrity is Chancellor of the Exchequer. — lb., p. 19. 

So far as pointing is concerned, emphasis is evenly distrib- 
uted by the semicolons in the last two examples ; *but the 
length and position of parts contribute to the effect. 

The Consideration of Movement 

Both clearness and emphasis are inextricably united with 
the complex and highly important effect called movement. 



Movement in Prose 41 

Movement in written prose may mean in the first place 
the progress of thought to a given end, with suggestion, 
information, entertainment, or persuasion by the way. If 
attention is directed to design and style, as theoretically 
isolated from thought, movement may mean the sum total 
of accents, pauses, suggested intonation, and suggested 
tone-color, together with the various means of empha- 
sis. Proportion, balance, suspension, parallelism, capitals, 
white space, punctuation marks — all these, and probably 
more than these, will enter into the effect. 

The importance of good movement — that is, good for the 
immediate purpose — is evident. As a rule, style ought to 
be straightforward. Though interruptions and asides are 
often permissible, even necessary, they justify themselves 
only by helping the reader to understand as he proceeds. 
Unnecessary points or points made necessary by bad struc- 
ture are likely to be obstructions. The following sentence 
from Mr. Arnold Bennett (The Price of Love, p. 87) is k 
an illustration of one of the ways in which pointing may 
affect movement. 

An aunt, Reuben, senior's, sister — it appeared — had died 
several years earlier; since when Rachel had alone kept house 
for her brother and her father. 

Mr. Bennett's style and pointing are seldom of this sort. 

The movement of a given piece of prose when read 
silently will depend on two factors, the reader and the 
prose. Rate of reading, checks and accelerations, the length 
of pauses, and variations of attention depend on the 
reader's interests and associations, and upon whatever 
else may happen to be in the stream of consciousness. 
What he will notice and with what degrees of attention 
will depend to some extent on changing conditions. With 
regard to punctuation marks, it is certain that some readers 



42 Modern Punctuation 

are indifferent so long as they understand the words, while 
others feel a wrong or unnecessary mark as an annoy- 
ance. 

The second factor in movement is the nature of the 
written prose. Some of the features which affect move- 
ment are choice of words, length and structure of para- 
graphs and sentences, alliteration and assonance, italic, 
capitals, footnote interruptions, and punctuation marks. 
Even such mechanical conditions as line length, type faces, 
white space, illustrations and borders, paper, and binding 
have something to do with the speed and satisfaction of 
reading. 

Some of the places where one would pause in speaking 
are not pointed, and some punctuation marks serve their 
purpose without any determinate vocal effect. To what 
extent marks check one who is reading to himself there is 
no way of determining ; only it is certain that points which 
exhibit meaning with true emphasis enable the reader to 
proceed more rapidly and pleasurably. If a point or 
the omission of a point makes for obscurity, or if a strong 
point is used where a light one would be better, there is 
likely to be a hitch in the movement. Movement may be 
disagreeably affected by any point that gives an impression 
of monotony, overemphasis, or self-consciousness. 

So far as pointing is concerned, emphasis and movement 
are correlative. Checking or altering the movement by a 
period makes both the preceding and following words more 
emphatic than they would be if a comma were used. The 
period does not necessarily mean a longer pause; it shows 
a different relation. 

These men make mistakes, but they do not repeat their mis- 



These men make mistakes. But they do not repeat their 
mistakes. 



Grouping, Movement, Cadence 43 

Or the semicolon might be used with still a third effect. 
The parts would be less sharply emphatic than in the second 
form, with emphasis upon the twofold antithetical state- 
ment rather than upon the parts. All three are correct; 
the choice will depend upon the context. 

The same relation of emphasis and movement appears in 
the use of series points, suspension and interruption points, 
parenthetical points, even quote marks. Every point used 
for grouping has some effect on the movement of its pas- 
sage. A passage may be halting or swift, quiet or violent, 
direct or circuitous. It may ' ' read well "or otherwise ; and 
the least analytical reader is likely to feel the effect of 
intervals and emphasis, whatever the nature of the com- 
position. 

The problem of punctuation in text matter is to employ 
words, points, and paragraph breaks in such a way as to 
achieve at the same time clearness, proper distribution of 
emphasis, and the desired kind of movement. The negative 
side of the matter is the avoidance of obscurity, monotony, 
false emphasis, ill-timed formality, and clumsiness of all 
kinds. 

Semiramis built Babylon; Dido, Carthage. 
There are three roads which commonly lead to want and 
wretchedness; namely, idleness, intemperance, and crime. 

These are given in manuals of punctuation without warn- 
ing, as examples of good punctuation. 

The following sentences show what pointing can do for 
cadence : 

Such is the direction, such the object, toward which the Somme 
"Drang nach Osten" — to steal a good phrase from the Germans 
— tends. 

A work of art, especially if the art be in literary form, affects 
us, primarily, emotionally. 



44 Modern Punctuation 

If the latter sentence affects the reader "primarily, emo- 
tionally, ' ' the emotion is unsympathetic. 

It is significant that the success of a parody depends 
largely on the accuracy with which it produces the intervals 
and emphasis — and the punctuation — of the original. The 
typographical abominations entitled Molly Make-Believe 
and The Sick-a-Bed Lady could not well be parodied with- 
out liberal use of hyphens, exclamation marks, and dashes 
of at least two lengths. They illustrate what Mrs. Mala- 
prop may have meant by "female punctuation. ' ' 

Design in Punctuation 

It is obvious that the first impression of a page is gained 
from the design rather than the wording. Says Mr. E. A. 
Batchelder, in his Principles of Design: 

We have to judge the personality of many men by the letters 
they write. . . . It is disagreeable to have a man shout 
at our ears — or at our eyes either. Be satisfied with a simple, 
well-spaced heading. Then think carefully of the body of the 
letter; watch the margins and allow a bit of silence all about 
the writing. See that the whole, as a page, is well spaced and 
properly balanced. 

The appearance of a printed page depends mainly on 
the distribution and proportion of white space ; and punc- 
tuation marks contribute to the effect by their influence 
upon the alternation of black and white. It is partly on 
grounds of design that there is objection to numerous 
hyphen breaks, to the use of the asterisk-index series of ref- 
erence marks in place of superior figures, and to certain 
combinations of points. Design is of particular importance 
in relation to quote marks. It is for the sake of appearance 
that the comma and the period precede the final double 



Design and Economy 45 

quote according to the practice of most offices, even when 
the meaning would suggest the reverse order. 

The setting of punctuation marks in the same font of 
type with what precedes — roman with roman or italic with 
italic — is required for both consistency and good design. 

Questions of visual effect cannot always be separated 
from questions of economy and clearness. An elaborate 
succession of points may be at the same time unpleasing to 
the eye and puzzling or labored. 



Economy in Punctuation 

Modern preference favors the use of the fewest and least 
obtrusive marks that will do the required work. As a 
matter of course, each question of punctuation is to be 
settled on the merits of the case. If a semicolon will serve 
better than a comma to make clear the meaning and value 
of a pair of clauses, the semicolon is in a sense lighter, 
because it saves confusion. Economy consists not in deny- 
ing one's self the use of semicolons or exclamation points, 
but rather in the use of the points most suitable to the 
immediate purpose. 

The consideration of economy will often suggest the use 
of single points where older usage preferred and present 
usage permits two points. If a dash will do the same work 
as a dash and comma together, the dash alone is better. 
For a similar reason, a light point that will do as well as 
a stronger point is preferable. 

Economy of pointing is conditioned upon directness of 
style. The small number of points in the average good 
sentence today may be explained partly by the avoidance 
of structure which would call for numerous parenthetical 
or series points. 

An elaborate style like Pater's will require much punc- 



46 Modern Punctuation 

tuation even when Pater is writing about sentences that 
need no punctuation. 

Say what you have to say, what you have a will to say, in 
the simplest, the most direct and exact manner possible, with 
no surplusage: — there, is the justification of the sentence so 
fortunately born, "entire, smooth, and round," that it needs no 
punctuation, and also (that is the point!) of the most elaborate 
period, if it be right in its elaboration. — Essay on Style. 

Pater's sentences are not usually of the "entire, smooth, 
and round" variety. The first 139 sentences of the Essay 
on Style carry more than 7 structural points per sentence. 
The New York Tribune editorials listed in Chapter IX 
(page 251 below) have an average of not quite 1.9 points 
per sentence. 

It is often desirable to manage so that a point will serve 
for two purposes at once, with the advantage of saving an 
unnecessary break. In this sentence from page 17 of 
Mr. Fred Lewis Pattee's America)! Literature Since 1870, 
the second dash marks the end of a parenthesis and at the 
same time a clause boundary: 

Wordsworth at the opening of the nineteenth century had 
protested against unreality and false sentiment — "a dressy lit- 
erature, an exaggerated literature" as Bagehot expressed it — 
and he started the romantic revolt by proposing in his poems 
"to choose incidents and situations from common life, and to 
relate or describe them, throughout, as far as was possible in a 
selection of language really used by men." 

For a like reason there may be advantage in placing 
quotations so that the quote marks will come at structural 
breaks. Reference indexes, such as asterisks or superior 
figures, are usually least obtrusive if placed at ends of 
sentences. 



Variety of Points and Structure 47 

The Consideration op Variety 

To insist on variety in pointing is not an unnecessary 
refinement, because pointing and style are inseparable. 
Monotonous pointing is a symptom of indolence or poverty. 
The excessive frequency of dashes or curves can become an 
intolerable mannerism ; and even the recurrence of commas 
and periods at noticeably regular intervals may be as awk- 
ward as the recurrence of set phrases. 

Just what constitutes monotony will depend on the in- 
tervals at which points occur and on the nature and the 
use of the points in question. A passage of considerable 
length may be pointed with nothing but periods and dashes 
without becoming at all monotonous. On the other hand, 
structure and points may be so combined as to give an 
impression of mechanical sameness. 

The counsel of variety is of use in revision rather than 
in the first stages of work. Variety need not always be 
consciously worked for in advance of correction; it comes 
rather as a by-product of good management in respect to 
such things as clearness and emphasis. A good way to 
test a passage for variety is to read it aloud. 



CHAPTER IV 

PARAGRAPH AND SENTENCE POINTING— THE 
POINTING OF MAIN CLAUSES 

The practical difficulties of punctuation are questions of 
utility which frequently involve decisions as to structure, 
and not punctuation alone. 

The apparent weight of a group depends partly on its 
structural status as indicated by capitals, pointing, and 
form. Other things equal, a sentence is rhetorically supe- 
rior to a main clause. So far as form is concerned, a main 
clause outweighs a subordinate clause ; and by virtue of its 
finite verb a clause of either kind is superior to a phrase. 
Such things as context, length, or phrasing may more than 
make up the difference; but under like conditions formal 
rank and consequent apparent value will depend on the 
structural rank of the element in question. The following 
forms distribute emphasis very differently : 

The Germans give due weight to their own amiable sentimental 
views of German importance and destinies, but they are also 
guided by business considerations. — New York Times, June 10, 
1918. 

The Germans give due weight to their own amiable sentimental 
views of German importance and destinies. But they are also 
guided by business considerations. 

Though the Germans give due weight to their own amiable 
sentimental views of German importance and destinies, they are 
not unmindful of business considerations. 

48 



Sentences, Clauses, Phrases 49 

The two-sentence form gives increased emphasis to both 
parts. The form beginning with though makes the first 
clause subordinate, suspending attention for the sake of 
massing emphasis upon the following main clause. 

The various ranks of sentence and sentence elements 
afford wide latitude of choice. A given notion, like This is 
a mistake, may appear in at least the following variety of 
forms : 

As a sentence, full or elliptical: This is a mistake. What a 
queer mistake! Isn't this a mistake? 

As a main clause, full or elliptical: He says the plans are 
ready; but that is a mistake. He says the plans are ready; a 
serious mistake. 

As a parenthetical clause : He says — but I know him to be mis- 
taken—that the plans are ready. 

As a subordinate clause: Though he is mistaken, I think he 
is sincere. 

As an absolute phrase : That being a mistake, we must change 
our plan. 

As an adverbial phrase: By that mistake he has spoiled a 
whole day's work. 

As a noun phrase : This mistake has obscured the nature of the 
problem. 

As an adjective or adjective phrase : This mistaken plan must 
be changed. Having been mistaken, we must change our plan. 

But the distinctions of main clause, subordinate clause, 
and other elements cannot be rigidly applied to questions of 
rhetoric. For purposes of punctuation a clause technically 
subordinate can be rhetorically a main clause, even a sen- 
tence. Such circumstances as length, position, or content 
may make a subordinate element coordinate with a prin- 
cipal clause. An expression like No or As you please may 
properly stand as a sentence. 

In the sentence below, the group following the semicolon 



50 Modern Punctuation 

is treated as a main clause though technically a mere 
phrase : 

Not many men to-day have the patience to read far in the end- 
less theological literature of that age; and with reason. — Paul 
Elmer More, The Drift of Romanticism, p. 228. 

The value and effectiveness of a group will depend only 
in part on its grammatical status or the other circumstances 
that contribute to its degree of prominence. It may happen 
that a casual reference, a w r ord in passing, will be more 
effective than direct assertion. In the following sentence 
an important idea is slipped in as if a light parenthesis : 

As it was, Germany — in the way of business — wired and lit 
(and examined) the forts at Liege. — H. G. Wells, What Is Com- 
ing? (p. 104). 

I. Paragraph Pointing 

Though paragraph pointing is not a customary name, it 
is the name of a familiar thing. An entire paragraph may 
be enclosed in quote marks, curves, or brackets. A colon or 
dash may indicate a relation between paragraphs. And 
where a paragraph consists of a single sentence, the sen- 
tence point is also the paragraph point. 

What is more important, punctuation indicates relations 
within the paragraph. It often helps to mark the boundary 
between introductory and developing matter or between 
development and conclusion. It also helps to show what 
parts of the paragraph are subordinate or parenthetical 
and what are principal. Punctuation is an aid to suspen- 
sion in the paragraph, an indication of relative weights of 
emphasis, an aid to movement. 

A paragraph in Mr. Arnold Bennett's Books and Persons 



Paragraph Pointing 51 

(page 39), beginning thus, might be differently pointed save 
for considerations which look beyond the two sentences 
here quoted : 

"A Set of Six" will not count among Mr. Conrad's major works. 
But in the mere use of English it shows an advance upon all 
his previous books. 

The group beginning But in the mere use of English 
might be separated from the preceding words by a comma 
or semicolon, except for being an introduction to the 
remainder of the paragraph. The sentences thereafter 
dwell not on the rank of the book but on Mr. Conrad's use 
of English. If reduced to the rank of a clause, the group 
would not be prominent enough for its work in the para- 
graph. The decision in such a case can be made only with 
reference to the context. 

The following passage from an editorial in the New York 
Globe (June 1, 1918) might be pointed differently; but 
any change from period to comma or comma to semicolon 
would change the distribution of emphasis. 

Against the German attack, made possible by the peace of 
Brest-Litovsk, the Allies have placed themselves under a single 
command. General Foch is not a trench fighter. The problem he 
had to consider when determining his strategy was unlike the 
problem before the German staff after the Marne, the men he 
commanded were of a different temper. Above all he must keep 
armies intact. Fighting in fixed position, he ran the risk of a 
fatal breach a heavily reinforced foe might make. . . . 

If the third sentence were isolated it probably would be 
pointed with semicolon, or divided into two sentences ; but 
in the actual context the comma is best for movement and 
for proper management of emphasis. 



52 Modern Punctuation 

Points and Paragraph Movement 

By exhibiting the structural divisions of the paragraph, 
and by contributing to suspension and the distribution of 
emphasis, judicious punctuation is an important aid to 
movement. On the other hand, misused points distort 
emphasis and make the paragraph monotonous or halting. 

The effect of punctuation marks on tone and movement, 
and their use for paragraph suspension, may be observed in 
the following paragraph from an article by Mr. W. K. 
Thayer in the Saturday Evening Post for February 16, 
1918. 

Very pretty disavowals and surprising insinuations! But 1 
methinks the Kaiser did protest too much. What was his plot? 
What did his camouflage hide with intent to deceive? His secret 
purpose has been dissected with a surgeon's skill and dispassion- 
ateness by Mr. Andre Cheradame, and I will content myself here 
with only an outline of his conclusions. 

The transitional group in the paragraph just quoted is an 
elliptical exclamatory sentence. The introductory sentence 
proper (But methinks the Kaiser did protest too much) is 
declarative, in a somewhat quieter tone. The next two sen- 
tences are suspensive by aid of interrogative form and 
pointing. The last sentence of the paragraph carries over 
to the succeeding passage the accumulated force of the sus- 
pension. 

In the following paragraph there is a case of sentence 
series, the parallelism of form being an aid to the movement 
of the paragraph : . 

In advertising print, typography is merely the servant of the 
advertising idea. It should not exist for itself at all. It should 
never obtrude by a display of dexterity for its own sake. It is 






Influence of Context 53 

merely the medium through which an advertising idea is ^iven 
that physical form which helps the reader to grasp in the least 
time and with the least effort what is being said to him; — Benjamin 
Sherbow, Making Type Work, p. 7. 

Points affect movement, and movement reacts upon point- 
ing. The following sentence, from page 180 of Miss Agnes 
Repplier's Americans and Others, may seem strange with 
this punctuation : 

It voices desires and dignities without number, it subjects the 
importance of the thing done to the importance of the manner 
of doing it. 

The sentence out of its context seems careless; but 
actually the pointing is the best for the purpose. The par- 
allelism of the sentences and the momentum of the para- 
graph make the light pointing adequate. The first half of 
the paragraph reads as follows : 

The symbolism of dress is a subject which has never received its 
due share of attention, yet it stands for attributes in the human 
race which otherwise defy analysis. It is interwoven with all 
our carnal and with all our spiritual instincts. It represents 
a cunning triumph over hard conditions, a turning of needs into 
victories. It voices desires and dignities without number, it sub- 
jects the importance of the thing done to the importance of the 
manner of doing it. 

Of the many relations of punctuation within the para- 
graph, only one more need be noticed for the present — the 
parenthetical relation. In the first of the following pas- 
sages the parenthesis belongs to the sentence. In the second, 
the sentence in curves is parenthetical to the paragraph. 

Yet here, in this everyday setting, and entirely unexpectedly 
(for I had never dreamed of such a thing), my eyes were opened, 



54 Modern Punctuation 

and for the first time in all my life I t caught a glimpse of the 
ecstatic beauty of reality. — Margaret P. Montague, Twenty Min- 
utes of Reality, p. 7f. 

Perhaps, too, this may be the great difference between the 
saints and the Puritans. Both are agreed that goodness is the 
means to the end, but the saints have passed on to the end and 
entered into the realization, and are happy. (One of the most 
endearing attributes of saints of a certain type was — or rather is, 
for one refuses to believe that saints are all of the past — their 
childlike gayety, which can proceed only from a happy and trust- 
ful heart.) The Puritan, on the other hand, has stuck fast in the 
means — is still worrying over the guide-posts, and is distrustful 
and over-anxious. — lb., p. 27f. 



Points Showing Relations between Paragraphs 

Punctuation marks are used to show relations not only 
within but between paragraphs. A paragraph which is 
parenthetical to a passage is sometimes enclosed in curves, 
though its relation is more often indicated by wording, as 
by the formula be it said in passing. And sometimes para- 
graphs are in appositive or suspended relation. 

Paragraph suspension is often marked by the colon, some- 
times by the dash, rarely by semicolon or comma. 

The paragraph colon and the nearly obsolete paragraph 
semicolon are thus used in an old textbook: 

Abnormal modifications of the predicate are of three classes : — 

1. Other parts of speech used as adverbs; 

2. Phrases; 

3. Clauses. 

In such tabulated matter modern printers prefer to 
point divisions with the period, a better arrangement 
because by comparison the period is not suspensive. Sus- 
pension maintained through tabulated matter is anomalous. 



Paragraph Colon and Dash 55 

The paragraph colon — often with an unnecessary dash — 
is common before quoted passages or other matter formally 
introduced. Sometimes also it is used before original mat- 
ter. The following is from an editorial in a popular maga- 
zine: 

War will bring great changes. There is much speculation as 
to what they will be in this direction or that. One thing is already 
fairly settled: 

War marks the end of the regime of individualistic unlimited 
competition. Its demonstration of the advantages of rational 
cooperation, as opposed to our legal insistence upon competi- 
tion always and everywhere, is too overwhelming to be obscured. 

The use of the colon in this passage is highly formal. Most 
introductory sentences followed by matter not quoted or 
tabulated take the period. 

The paragraph dash is sometimes used for paragraph 
suspension after such a formula as It is held or Provided. 
In the following sentence, on the contrary, the dashes are 
used not after an introductory formula but between the 
members of a series divided into paragraphs. 

If a man is not thrilled by intimate contact with nature: with 
the sun, with the earth, which is his origin and the arouser of his 
acutest emotions — 

If he is not troubled by the sight of beauty in many forms — 

If he is of those who talk about "this age of shams," "this age 
without ideals," "this hysterical age," and this heaven-knows- 
what-age — 

Then that man, though he reads undisputed classics for twenty 
hours a day, though he has a memory of steel, though he rivals 
Porson in scholarship and Sainte Beuve in judgment, is not receiv- 
ing from literature what literature has to give. — Arnold Bennett, 
Literary Taste, p. 116. 



56 Modern Punctuation 

In general, relations between paragraphs are most often 
indicated without the mechanical device of suspension 
pointing. 



Paragraphs and Paragraphing 

Like punctuation, paragraphing exhibits grouping or 
determines apparent grouping. The difference is that 
usually the groups concerned are larger and the breaks 
more emphatic. 

A paragraph is a sentence or group of sentences — in rare 
cases less than a sentence — standing to itself as an indepen- 
dent composition or as part of a composition. In the latter 
case each paragraph is customarily marked off from the 
preceding paragraph by indention, or initial white space, 
the first line of each paragraph being set in from the margin 
line. In most cases there is also a remainder of white space 
at the end of the last line. 

In some books and magazines the first paragraph of a 
chapter is not indented ; and sometimes, especially in poster 
and advertisement work, indention is made unnecessary by 
extra white space between paragraphs. In solid typewrit- 
ten matter it is frequently desirable to space the paragraphs 
apart besides indenting first lines. 

Division into paragraphs must be decided mainly by 
individual cases. The principal considerations are as fol- 
lows: 

1. Paragraph division serves its purpose so far as it 
enables the reader to follow the thought with interest and 
understanding. If. paragraphs are so long or so short as to 
obscure the relation and relative weight of the parts, the 
paragraphing is bad. There is no fixed position for topical 
or summarizing matter, nor is there any best method or set 
of methods of paragraph construction. 



Paragraphing 57 

2. A paragraph sets off a group which presumably con- 
stitutes a unit of thought. A paragraph should therefore 
be so composed as to be and seem sufficient to its purpose 
and free from extraneous matter. But unity is far from 
being the decisive consideration in paragraphing. Whether 
a sentence or passage shall be set off as a paragraph must 
be decided partly on grounds of emphasis and movement. 
Such a group as the summary of a long passage may require 
emphasis by paragraphing in order to make clear its func- 
tion in the context. 

3. A sentence or group of sentences is usually more 
emphatic or at least more distinct if separately paragraphed 
than if combined with other sentences. But the more fre- 
quent the paragraph breaks, the less each counts for 
emphasis. 

4. Paragraphing has an effect on the movement of com- 
position. Frequent paragraphing may become choppy and 
falsely emphatic; but matter which is to be read rapidly 
may be most effective in short paragraphs. Problems of 
paragraphing are problems of thought and adaptation, not 
of conformity to rule. 

5. The proper paragraph length depends partly on the 
width of lines or the size of pages. In narrow measure 
or on short pages paragraphs should be somewhat shorter 
than ordinarily. According to Mr. W. G. Bleyer (Types of 
News Writing, p. 11), the typical newspaper paragraph 
varies from 35 to 75 words, as against 150 to 250 in ordi- 
nary prose. But this difference is due only in part to line 
length. Perhaps the main explanation is that popular 
newspapers are intended to be read rapidly by all sorts of 
people and with the least possible exertion. In some of the 
most readable newspapers, on the contrary, paragraphs in 
the leading editorials (as opposed to the detached composi- 
tions known specifically as ''paragraphs") are often long. 



58 Modern Punctuation 

For example, in the New York Times for June 14, 1918, 
paragraphs in the leading editorials average about 21 lines 
and about 131 words, extracts being excluded from the 
estimate. 

6. In dialogue it is customary to make a new paragraph 
for each change of speaker, but this is far from being an 
invariable rule. Sometimes quote marks, mid-paragraph 
dashes, or the words Question and Answer are held sufficient 
for grouping. 

Points and Paragraph Structure 

Parts of a paragraph may be labeled topical, developing, 
concluding, or transitional, though two or more functions 
may be performed by the same set of words. The structural 
lines may be difficult to discern, and properly so. Where 
lightness and informality are requisite, it may be well to 
reduce formal introduction and summarizing to a minimum. 
Transitions likewise should often be managed with the least 
possible formality. But in any case the paragraph should 
be clear as a whole, and the parts should work together to 
their common end. 

The Mid-Paragraph 

As a rule in modern typography, division within the 
paragraph is effected by wording and the ordinary sentence 
points. A new subtopic may be introduced by a connective 
phrase like on the other hand, or informally without any 
device which would call attention to the framework of the 
paragraph. If the meaning is clear the plan may be kept 
out of sight. Change from topic to topic may be made suf- 
ficently clear by a change from interrogative to declarative 
form, or without change of sentence type at all. 



Mid-Paragraph Paints 59 

A device once common but seldom used today save in 
crowded composition is the mid-paragraph dash — a dash 
reinforcing a full stop. The following specimen is from 
page 171 of Samuel Butler's Erewhon Revisited: 

"There," said my father, "you confirm an opinion that I have 
long held. — Nothing is so misleading as the testimony of eye- 
witnesses." 

A device which is becoming familiar in America is the 
use of reinforcing suspension periods — a row of dots, 
usually three — to strengthen or modify a period or other 
full stop. The period is a sign of completion; the period 
with suspension points following is made suspensive, with 
the suggestion that the reader is to think a moment about 
the preceding words, or to look forward with special inter- 
est. Mr. Edwin E. Slosson says of Mr. H. G. Wells: "In 
the midst of his most eloquent passages he stops, shakes his 
head, runs in a row of dots, and adds a few words, hinting 
at another point of view." The following paragraph of 
dialogue is from a novel by Mr. Wells: 

"You see," said Mr. Britling, trying to get it into focus, "I 
have known quite decent Germans. There must be some sort of 
misunderstanding. ... I wonder what makes them hate us. 
There seems to me no reason in it." 

The suspension periods are not likely to mark a distinct 
topical break ; they are indefinite signs of meditation. 

There are many good writers who do not use suspensior 
periods under any circumstances. 

II. Sentence Pointing 

Terminal or sentence points mark a sentence as either 
complete or abruptly left incomplete, so that following 
matter will begin with a capital. 



60 Modern Punctuation 

"Sentence" will be used equally of full sentences and of 
broken or elliptical expressions displayed as sentences by 
initial capital and by terminal pointing. As both conver- 
sation and writing go largely in remarks not fully equipped 
with subject and predicate, the pointing of elliptical sen- 
tences as if in regular form need not be disturbing. There 
is much use of clipped sentences even in careful editorial 
and essay writing. 

Sentences may be pointed with period, question mark, 
exclamation mark, colon (capital or paragraph break fol- 
lowing), dash, or suspension periods. Suspension periods 
are used either alone or reinforcing an ordinary full stop ; 
and the dash is also used, though rarely in book text, as 
reinforcement of a full stop. A terminal point may have 
with it a parenthetical point or a quote mark; but since 
these are not terminal points they will be included else- 
where. 

Sentence Length 

Good sentences vary greatly in length. The number of 
words a sentence 'can advantageously carry is not subject 
to rule ; it depends on the circumstances of the individual 
case, among them the movement of the passage and the 
requirements of emphasis. The length of an individual 
sentence is determined by considerations of clearness, effec- 
tive unity, variety, and emphasis, all of these with reference 
to the meaning and desired tone of the passage. In adver- 
tisements and some kinds of newspaper writing the average 
sentence is much shorter than in most book prose ; but the 
popular notion that newspaper sentences are usually short 
is an error. The characteristic of the best newspaper sen- 
tence type is not brevity but directness. 

The long sentence gives opportunity for suspension and 
qualification. The short sentence is useful for such pur- 



Complete Sentences 61 

poses as abrupt emphasis and emphatic transition or sum- 
mary. The abuse of either kind results in monotony and 
bad management of emphasis. 

Sentences with their terminal pointing may be considered 
under three heads: (1) complete sentences, elliptical sen- 
tences included, (2) sentences abruptly left incomplete, and 
(3) suspended sentences. The familiar terms declarative, 
interrogative, and exclamatory will be used, but with refer- 
ence to meaning rather than form. 

1. Complete Sentences 

An ordinary declarative or imperative sentence, full or 
elliptical, is pointed with the period. But a declarative or 
imperative sentence which is intended to be very emphatic 
or strongly exclamatory may take the exclamation mark. 
The following passage is from an editorial in the New York 
Evening Post for March 26, 1918 : 

Why talk longer of concessions to the enemy, or of peace nego- 
tiations, when stark force might make them absolute masters? 
Give up Belgium? Nay, rather, seize more of France. Listen to 
the counsels of moderation? On the contrary, strike right and 
left like the devils of hell, and give God all the praise! 

A sentence declarative in form but interrogative in pur- 
pose takes the question mark. The form of He is ready? 
is declarative, but the meaning requires the question mark. 

The indirect question does not often make its sentence 
interrogative. I asked him what he meant by his message 
is not a question but an assertion about a question, the ques- 
tion being given only in substance. On the contrary, a 
declarative sentence ending with a direct question takes the 
question mark, which points at once the quoted matter and 
the sentence. The same practice is followed in the case of 
quoted exclamations. 



62 Modern Punctuation 

He suddenly asked me, "What are you doing here?" 

"You give no drugs, Doctor," he complained. "You're a scab 
on the profession!" — Robert Herrick, The Master of the Inn, 
p. 52f. 

Though sentences interrogative in form are usually 
pointed with the question mark, the length and meaning 
may make the period preferable. 

Was it in consequence of such injunctions that an address 
dealing with the causes of the war delivered by a distinguished 
professor of history elicited from a woman of notoriously German 
sympathies the comment, "It was fine; he balanced things so 
beautifully." — W. H. Hobbs, in the New York Tribune, April 
16, 1918. 

The length of the sentence and the declarative form of the 
quotation make the period preferable: 

In the following sentence interrogative form is merely 
a form of courtesy. The period is better than the question 
mark would be. 

Will you please quote prices for (1) 200 copies in paper, 
(2) 300 copies in regular cloth binding, and (3) 25 copies in 
library binding. 

The typical exclamatory form appears in the sentence 
What a price to pay! But since pointing is likely to be 
determined by meaning rather than form, a sentence out- 
wardly declarative or interrogative may be pointed as an 
exclamation. 

"Am I cold!" Edwin repeated. — Arnold Bennett, These Twain, 
p. 405. 

Edwin's words mean "Of course I am cold." 



Broken Sentences 63 

The choice between question and exclamation mark may 
be far from obvious, as in this: 

The enemy that comes to her [England] as a visible host or 
armada she can still close with and throttle; but when the foe 
arrives as an arrow that flieth by night, what avail the old sinews, 
the old stoutness of heart! — John Erskine, The Moral Obligation 
to Be Intelligent, p. 25. 

The form of the following sentence is exclamatory, but 
the point used is the period. The exclamation mark would 
be unnecessarily strong. 

Still, when something is said of a man's stamina, how small 
is the number of those to whom it occurs that stamina is a plural. 
— Thomas R. Lounsbury, The Standard of Usage in English, 
p. 156. 

In sentences of mixed type, as part declarative and part 
interrogative, the final clause determines the sentence point- 
ing. 

The thing is preposterous and impossible; and yet is not that 
what the whole course and action of the German armies has meant 
wherever they have moved ? — From a speech by President Wilson, 
as reported in a newspaper. 

If the last clause of a compound sentence is clearly exclama- 
tory, the terminal point is the exclamation mark. 



2. Uncompleted Sentences 

To mark a sentence as incomplete the usual mark is the 
dash, the length of the dash being according to office rules. 
With the dash there may be a question or exclamation mark 
to designate the character of the sentence. The dash is 
sometimes replaced by suspension periods. 



64 Modern Punctuation 

She had meant, she owned, to glance through the book; but 
she had been so absorbed in a novel of Trollope's that — 

"No one reads Trollope now," Mrs. Ballinger interrupted. — 
Edith Wharton, Xingu, p. 7. 

And for an ending: — "Her tremulous eyes sought his; breath- 
ing a sigh she murmured ..." succession of dots, charged 
with significance vague but tremendous, there were to be many of 
you in my novel, because you play so important a part in the 
literature of the country of Victor Hugo and M. Loubet ! — Arnold 
Bennett, The Truth about an Author, p. 63f. 

Where a sentence is broken in fiction dialogue, the dash 
used at the point of interruption is sometimes repeated 
where the sentence is resumed. The pointing of fiction, 
especially of dialogue, is likely to be more " rhetorical, ' ' 
according to the old use of the word, than that of ordinary 
text. 

The dash as a terminal point is customarily used without 
additional period. 

3. Suspended Sentences 

The sentence is often defined as a group of words express- 
ing a complete thought. As a matter of fact, sentences are 
sometimes pointed with marks of incompletion or suspen- 
sion. 

There are two types of suspension. A full sentence may 
have suspension periods which suggest a meditative pause, 
the suspension periods being used either alone or in addi- 
tion to another terminal point. In the other type of sus- 
pension a dependent group, preceded by a colon or other 
mark, is capitalized or even set as a new paragraph. 

The following sentences employ terminal suspension 
periods : 

In reply he talked about literarv cranks. He spoke of how 
Thoreau, with his long hair and ugly looks, frightened strangers 



Cases of Suspension 65 

who suddenly met him in the woods. I thanked him for light on 
Thoreau. . . . But he had to admit that my hair was short. — 
Vachel Lindsay, A Handy Guide for Beggars, p. 82. 

"Les forts tiennent tou jours!" But we had seen no 

soldiers save Belgians, though a few German prisoners were 
brought in; they thought that they were in France and expressed 
surprise that Paris was not larger. — Brand Whitlock, "Belgium," 
in Everybody's Magazine, March, 1918. 

In the second passage the suspension periods are nsed in 
a group of five. Groups of three are more usual, as in the 
quotation from Mr. Lindsay. 

Where the following matter is dependent, suspension is 
usually managed with the colon, less often with the dash, 
seldom with other points unless the following matter is 
quoted. 

The following sentences from Dr. A. S. Cook's Higher 
Study of English (pages 92, 109, and 59) exemplify three 
ways of managing expressions capable of being suspended : 

Now here belongs a truth which is frequently overlooked. It 
is this: One does not truly and completely know a word, as 
Lord Chatham and Tennyson knew words, save through contrast 
and comparison. 

I have said that, in my opinion, there are three classes of men 
who, beyond any others, raise the human species out of savagery, 
or prevent it from relapsing into that state. These, I repeat, 
are the ministers of religion, the poets — a kind of generic term 
which designates the arts in general by the chief of all arts — and 
the teachers of the humanities. 

If we look at the situation largely, this, I think, may fairly be 
said at the moment: that the emphasis is upon quantity rather 
than quality, upon phenomena rather than principles, upon prac- 
tice rather than theory, or upon the science rather than the philos- 
ophy of the subject. 

In the first passage there is a case of colon suspension, the 
following group being capitalized as a sentence. In the 



66 Modern Punctuation 

second, the introductory group takes the period, a lighter 
point because non-suspensive. In the third passage the 
introductory words are pointed with the colon ; but because 
the following group is not capitalized the suspension is 
less emphatic than in the passage where the colon is fol- 
lowed by a capital. 

Suspension with the colon between sentences may be 
open to objection. The colon gives the impression of saying 
to the reader, "Look closely; important matter coming." 
In the great majority of cases introductory matter, save 
before a quotation or list, is better pointed with period 
than with colon. The period is lighter and less formal. 

The dash as a suspensive mark before a dependent sen- 
tence is more abrupt but less emphatic than the colon. It 
differs from the period in being suspensive. For lightness 
of movement the period is obviously better. 

It is clear that expectation can be awakened by wording 
without the aid of unusual devices in punctuation. A ques- 
tion or an ordinary declarative sentence may be quite suffi- 
cient. The more unobtrusively such things are managed, 
the better for movement. 



The Choice of Sentence Types 

The terminal points offer room for considerable latitude 
of choice in sentence types. The declarative form is use- 
ful several times oftener than the exclamatory and inter- 
rogative put together; but questions and exclamations are 
effective out of proportion to their frequency. The ques- 
tion mark is useful, for informal suspension, the exclama- 
tion mark for emphasis or irony, both of them for variety 
of tone and movement. 

For abruptness there is the dash, and for vague impres- 
siveness — if one likes, that sort of thing — there are suspen- 



Sentence and Clause 67 

sion periods. The risk in using these points is that the 
author may seem too much pleased with his own eloquence. 



III. The Pointing op Main Clauses 

It is often difficult to choose between terminal and com- 
pounding points. Either a sentence or a clause may begin 
with but, and, yet, or no connective at all. Nor is the prin- 
ciple of unity decisive. A good clause is no less a unit than 
a good sentence, and what is called c ' closeness of relation ' ' 
is too elastic to be always useful. The antithetical relation 
may be shown without pointing, or with comma, semicolon, 
colon, or full stop. Antithesis may be developed by the two 
halves of a paragraph, or by contrasted passages. Each 
question of the kind has to be settled as an individual case, 
with a view to clearness and effective unity. 

In either of the following cases division into sentences 
would be possible, and in a different context might be 
necessary to proper management of emphasis. 

It is all very well to pour oil on troubled waters; it is foolish- 
ness to pour it on wildfire. — Irvin S. Cobb, "Speaking of Prus- 
sians — " (p. 49). 

In one sense, it is impossible to learn words apart from ideas; 
for a word will convey no meaning whatever if we are not in 
some way acquainted — directly, or by description, or by inference 
— with some part of the idea for which it stands. — William Tenney 
Brewster, Writing English Prose, p. 233. 

A long group is more likely to be set as a sentence than 
a shorter group ; but length is only one circumstance of the 
case. For the sake of emphasis a phrase like of course 
may be given sentence rank ; a group five times as long and 
equipped with subject and predicate may be more useful 
as a clause. 



68 Modern Punctuation 

Main Clauses and Compound Sentences 

A compound sentence consists of two or more main 
clauses, a main clause being one which, with its conjunction 
if it has one, could stand alone as a sentence. A paren- 
thetical clause does not count as a main clause, whatever its 
form. 

The sentence If Jie comes you may invite Mm to stay is 
not a compound sentence, the first clause being unable to 
stand alone except as an elliptical sentence with main clause 
implied from the context. But the parts bounded by the 
semicolon in the following sentence could stand as inde- 
pendent sentences : 

In the bass family, as the popular jingle has it, nobody works 
but father; he's on guard all day, fins in constant motion, keep- 
ing the foes away. — From an editorial in the New York Sun. 

If any clause of a compound sentence carries a subordinate 
clause, the sentence is technically "compound complex," 
but for the present purpose the distinction is not important. 

A compound sentence may contain more than two state- 
ments, besides whatever ideas are conveyed in subordi- 
nate elements. The possible relations between clauses are 
numerous. 

A group technically subordinate or elliptical may be 
rhetorically a main clause, with pointing to correspond. 

The puppy offers no sign whatever; just lies in the road. — 
Arnold Bennett, The Author's Craft, p. 11. 

It is the largest and fullest picture of life in the order to which 
it belongs; the only thing that shows incontestably the power of 
the old heroic poetry to deal on a fairly large scale with subjects 
taken from the national tradition. — -W. P. Ker, English Litera- 
ture : Medieval, p. 30. 



Main-Clause Points 69 

In the first of these the part following the semicolon has a 
verb but no subject. In the second, the semicolon is fol- 
lowed by a group which may be called an elliptical clause, 
though technically an appositive group. 

In like manner it is often necessary to treat as main 
clauses such subordinate groups as relative clauses. Punc- 
tuation is concerned not with grammatical but with rhetori- 
cal classification. 

The Compounding Points 

The points used between main clauses, whether full or 
elliptical, are seldom any others than comma, semicolon, 
colon, dash. 

The comma is the lightest and least specialized of the 
compounding points, and the most frequent. 

The semicolon is the most clearly specialized coordinating 
point. It is specially useful for balance and antithesis and 
for cases of compounding in which a second clause repeats 
with addition the idea of a clause which precedes. It is 
also a useful compounding mark when there is no connec- 
tive between clauses. The semicolon is not ponderous 
unless used with formal wording or misused in place of 
other points. 

The colon is usually a mark of apposition or expectation 
following introductory matter ; but sometimes it is employed 
in cases for which the more frequent mark is the semi- 
colon. Like the semicolon the colon may be at the same time 
anticipatory and compounding. Where part of a compound 
sentence contains a semicolon, the colon is the traditional 
mark for the principal break; but this use of the colon is 
no longer common. In American newspapers, special and 
foreign articles excepted, the compounding colon is rare. 

The dash properly marks a sudden turn, surprise, or 



70 Modern Punctuation 

interruption. It is a useful compounding point where the 
following clause is in a sort of apposition to the clause which 
precedes. The unusual combination semicolon with dash 
is a variant of the semicolon. The comma with dash is a 
variant of the dash. 

In rare cases question and exclamation marks are used 
between clauses. 

How did he know but that Hanky and Panky might have driven 
over from Sunch'ston to see Mr. Turvey, and might put up at 
this very house? or they might even be going to spend the night 
here. — Samuel Butler, Erewhon Revisited, p. 161. 

The effect of the compounding exclamation mark, which is 
even less common than the compounding question mark, 
may be judged from the following passage from a modern 
reprint of Beckford's Vathek: 

"Still more misfortunes!" cried Morakanabad, with a sigh. 
"Ah, Commander of the faithful, our holy Prophet is certainly 
irritated against us! it behoves you to appease him." 

The compounding exclamation mark is practically obsolete, 
and the compounding question is rare. Neither one need 
be mentioned in the remainder of the chapter. 

The use of suspension periods at clause breaks may be 
occasionally observed; but this pointing is so infrequent as 
to be rated eccentric. 

Compound sentences may be considered under three 
heads: sentences with "grammatical" connectives, those 
with "logical" connectives, and those without connectives 
at clause breaks. The points used often enough to be 
counted as important are comma, semicolon, colon, and 
flash. More than a mention of the others would exaggerate 
their present usefulness. 






Two Types of Connectives 71 

1. Compounding with Grammatical Connective 

For the lack of a better name, the conjunctions and, out, 
for, or, and nor may be called grammatical connectives, the 
name used by Mr. R. D. Miller in the article Coordination 
and the Comma, which is listed on page 12 above. Such 
connectives as nevertheless and therefore will be called 
logical connectives. 

Both classes of. connectives may be used between clauses 
or as paragraph-transition words; but the grammatical 
connectives are more frequently employed as clause links, 
and their use often permits lighter pointing than would be 
desirable with the logical connectives. 

Where a grammatical connective is present, compounding 
is sometimes managed without pointing. 

I looked at my watch and it was close to five. — Simeon Strun- 
sky, Post-Impressions, p. 10. 

We went over our list of books for the summer and she 
wondered whether it wouldn't pay to get a seamstress into the 
house and avoid the exhausting trips downtown. — lb., p. 22. 

These sentences are of the conversational type, good in their 
context but of course not suited to all occasions. The fol- 
lowing sentence has one clause break marked with comma, 
another not pointed: 

She is going to work and she is going to weep, but she is 
also going to dress. — Agnes Repplier, Americans and Others, 
p. 175. 

The following sentence, from the Saturday Evening Post 
of December 15, 1917, is of a type not unusual in news- 
papers : 

The estimate for the two additional clerks in Washington 
will go to the Committee on Appropriations and the estimate for 



72 Modem Punctuation 

an additional field agent will go to an entirely different com- 
mittee. 



Comma with Grammatical Connective 

If a conjunction like and is present, the comma is suffi- 
cient to hold together clauses of considerable length and 
complexity. This is true even of book punctuation. It 
may happen that a comma which is sufficient for clear 
grouping in its own sentence may not serve the require- 
ments of the paragraph; but neither length of clauses nor 
the use of commas within clauses can be said to " require' ' 
the semicolon for grouping. The semicolon may or may 
not be needed; cases are properly decided according to re- 
quirements of grouping and weight in the light of the con- 
text. 

Here is a solid and ancient festive tradition still plying a 
roaring trade in the streets, and they think it vulgar. — G. K. 
Chesterton, Heretics, p. 100. 

We have heard of a certain standard of decorum which de- 
mands that things should be funny without being vulgar, but the 
standard of this decorum demands that if things are vulgar they 
shall be vulgar without being funny. — lb., p. 113. 

If either of the sentences from Mr. Chesterton came at the 
end of the paragraph, the comma might give place to the 
semicolon. 

In the following sentences the comma is sufficient in spite 
of the presence of other commas : 

By 1849 the national movement had begun to flow in its natural 
channel, and it became clear that the unity of Italy, if it was 
to be accomplished at all, would be accomplished under the 
House of Savoy. — Lacy CoUison-Morley, Modern Italian Litera- 
ture, p. 267. 



Predicates in Series 73 

In this respect the Revolution bears out the observation of 
Toequeville that, although political in its nature, it proceeded in 
the manner of a religious revolution, for it stirred up animosities 
which in their inveterate bitterness rank with the hateful emo- 
tions that have accompanied religious changes, — James Harvey 
Robinson, The New History, p. 198f. 

Sentences of equal or greater length with nothing stronger 
than commas at the main breaks may be found in any news- 
paper. 

Predicate Series with One Conjunction 

In opposition to the usual book rule that triads of nouns 
or adjectives shall be pointed according to the formula 
Tom, Dick, and Harry are in town, many newspapers omit 
the second comma and set the series as Tom, Dick and 
Harry. And therefore — the logic is not guaranteed — some 
compositors think it their duty to treat predicates in the 
same way. Three-clause compound sentences with one 
comma are rare, but three-predicate sentences in the form 
advanced to the river, reconnoitered half an hour and then 
retired are not uncommon. 

The expression Caesar, Pompey and Crassus is clear even 
if one does not like the pointing; but the application of 
a rigid no-comma rule to the last two members of a predi- 
cate series may obscure the grouping. The following sen- 
tence is from a popular weekly magazine: 

Some spy out and report our military preparations; others 
foment strikes, set class against class, preach pacifism and pes- 
simism and poison the springs of thought. 

The omission of the comma which should be used after 
pessimism lets it appear momentarily that poison is in 



74 Modern Punctuation 

series with pacifism. When there is a rigid office rule 
against the second comma, such sentences ought not to be 
written. Such a rule, as a rule for all conditions, has 
only one point of virtue — it discourages the writing of 
triads. 

Where the series consists of full clauses, not mere predi- 
cates with subject in common, the comma is seldom omitted. 
The following sentence is a typical case: 

Ludendorff has collected divisions from every quarter, he has 
brought up more guns, and he seems determined to press against 
the British left flank until it breaks or exhaustion overpowers his 
forces. — New York Tribune, April 6, 1918. 

Semicolon with Grammatical Connective 

The semicolon is used with grammatical connectives be- 
tween clauses short or long, simple or elaborate. The semi- 
colon may be necessary to clear grouping when the parts 
of a compound sentence are elaborate; may be necessary 
even in a short and direct compound sentence to make 
clear the weight of the parts in their context. 

The second sentence in the following passage is short and 
direct enough to be pointed at the clause boundary with 
the comma or nothing. But the importance of the idea 
they skipped in the paragraph makes the semicolon best : 

They worked these into plots of adventure, mystery, fairy 
magic ; the adventures were too good to be lost ; so the less refined 
English readers, who were puzzled or wearied by sentimental 
conversations, were not able to do without the elegant romances. 
They read them; and they skipped. — W. P. Ker, English Lit- 
erature: Medieval, p. 72. 

In this paragraph from a Saturday Evening Post edito- 
rial (May 18, 1918) the semicolon could be replaced by the 



Semicolon, Colon, and Dash 75 

comma or period only if the adjacent groups we:;e intended 
to hold a different rank in the paragraph: 

Your affair is the triumphant proletariat — without bosses, 
jobs, fuel, food, clothes or lodgings, but gloriously triumphant 
at last. You may run out of all the necessities of life; but the 
resources of the dictionary are practically unlimited. 

This sentence, from an article by Mr. C. H. Ward, is a 
clause series for v which commas would be too light : 

As a printer he had ideals; as a theologian he was a keen 
progressive; he loved and helped to edit Burns; he received an 
honorary degree from Harvard; and all the days of his long life 
he studied punctuation. [The reference is to John Wilson, author 
of the Treatise on English Punctuation.] 

If these clauses were set as sentences their staccato empha- 
sis would be intolerable. 



Other Points with Grammatical Connective 

The use of the colon with any of the grammatical con- 
nectives may be defended on the ground of rhythmical 
effect or clear designation of value in the context ; but this 
use of the colon is infrequent. 

Form becomes vanity, art is held a bauble, style an indulgence; 
strenuousness is all : and that way disaster lies. — William Watson, 
Pencraft, p. 100. 

Practice is the only absolute proof of sincerity: but defect 
in practice is no proof of insincerity. — John Bailey, Dr. Johnson 
and His Circle, p. 50. 

The dash, alone or with comma, is sometimes used for 
abruptness or surprise. It directs attention mainly to 
what follows. 



76 Modern Punctuation 

A little patient plodding and industrious thumbing of the 
pages, — and there you are! — F. T. Cooper, The Craftsmanship 
of Writing, p. 244. 

A Frenchwoman came to London for the first time — and no 
English person would ever guess the phenomenon which van- 
quished all others in her mind on the opening day. She saw a 
cat walking across a street. — Arnold Bennett, The Author's 
Craft, p. 17. 

The dash as a compounding point is oftener used with- 
out than with a grammatical connective. 

2. Compounding with Logical Connective 

Link words used in compounding — repetitions and pro- 
nouns not counted — are classed as logical if not in the 
small list of grammatical connectives (and, but, for, or, 
nor). Some common logical connectives are so, therefore, 
nevertheless, on the other hand. 

In the article Coordination and the Comma, Mr. K. D. 
Miller points out two peculiarities of the logical connec- 
tives. (1) The logical connective is often embedded within 
a clause, whereas the grammatical connective regularly 
begins the clause. (2) With a logical connective in a two- 
clause compound sentence, except with yet, the comma is 
seldom sufficient. Mr. Miller concludes that "the use of 
the comma alone before a logical connective [except yet] 
is the mark of an illiterate, slovenly, or careless style.' ' 
But there is an evident tendency toward a relaxation of the 
traditional custom, especially in the case of so. 

"With respect to pointing, yet is treated like but or and. 
In the following sentence it is used with the comma: 

The fate of Alsace-Lorraine is properly an international and 
hence world question, yet after all what convinced President 






Points with Logical Connective 77 

Wilson of Teutonic insincerity was less Germany's dubious 
proposals about the lost provinces than her open and flagrantly 
predatory and cynical treatment of the Ukraine, Rumania, and 
the Soviets.— The Dial, June 6, 1918. 

As a matter of course, yet may follow the semicolon or 
any one of several other points. Like but or and, it is 
frequently employed at the beginning of a sentence or 
paragraph. 

With logical connectives the typical compounding point 
is the semicolon. The comma is usually too light, the dash 
too abrupt, the colon too formal or at any rate contrary 
to prevailing American practice. If the semicolon is not 
suitable, a sentence break is usually best. 

Every one could understand and enjoy it; so it became the 
favourite thing at popular festivals, as well as at the Christmas 
entertainments in the great hall. — W. P. Ker, English Literature: 
Medieval, p. 82. 

Forgetting, then, is highly important. Without it there 
would be no new experiences at all. Yet if it were complete, 
there would be no new experiences either, for it is through our 
old experiences that we get our new ones. — Ernest Carroll Moore, 
What Is Education? (p. 277). 

In the following sentence the colon marks the boundary 
between the larger groups, one of them containing a semi- 
colon : 

' ~Nor is it even a very good book : on the contrary, Mr. Melville's 
transcription of the letters shows signs of carelessness; his por- 
trait of the writer suggests an attempt at whitewashing, while his 
interpretation of Beckford's published works fails to give their 
real significance in literature. — Paul Elmer More, The Drift of 
Romanticism, p. 3. 

Many careful writers would replace the colon in this case 
with a period. 



78 Modern Punctuation 

The effect of the comma with the logical connective so 
may be judged from the following specimens: 

He found, however, that the evolution of society could not 
be treated satisfactorily in fiction, so he began, in 1880, while 
abroad, the researches in history which were to occupy him 
thereafter to the end of his life. — Meredith Nicholson, The Provin- 
cial American and Other Papers, p. 50. 

There was now no reason why he should not take it with him, 
so he put it in his pocket. — Samuel Butler, Erewhon Revisited, 
p. 61. 

Sentences of this type pointed with the comma have been 
so infrequent in respectable writing, save recently, that 
the comma may seem careless. Sentences with the con- 
nective so are not frequently useful in writing, however 
much used in conversation. 

3. Compounding without Connective 

Compounding is often managed without a connective, 
the most frequent points in this case being comma and semi- 
colon. The colon is sometimes used when the first clause 
is informally anticipatory, oftener when the wording is 
formal. But the semicolon is more frequent even when 
the first clause awakens expectation of a complementary 
clause to follow. 

The dash is useful when the following clause represents 
an unexpected turn, sometimes also to mark clause-opposi- 
tion. The other points commonly used between successive 
statements in appositive relation are the colon and the 
period. If a paragraph begins with the words He lias only 
one excuse, there may properly be a sentence break. Both 
the colon and the dash are strongly suspensive, the period 
being comparatively light. 



Structure Supporting the Comma 79 

Comma without Connective 

The compounding comma without connective is mani- 
festly growing in favor. With the decreasing use of 
formal link words, with a growing preference for light 
and direct style, compound sentences that need no conjunc- 
tions are becoming much more frequent. The semicolon is 
still used in many sentences of the kind, and to all appear- 
ances will not yieM its place however vigorously attacked 
by those who would make our laws of punctuation. But 
there are numerous cases, more numerous in live^ than in 
sluggish writing, in which the comma is better. 

With no connective present, the comma requires careful 
handling. It is too easy a point to bungle. In general, 
the comma is sufficient only when supported by series, 
correlation, parallel form, climax, a common modifier, or 
the momentum of the paragraph. 

In the following case of series the clauses have the same 
subject (with change from man to he) and are in climax: 

Man fixed the association of colours with grief and gladness, 
he made ornaments the insignia of office, he ordained that fabric 
should grace the majesty of power. — Agnes Repplier, Americans 
and Others, p. 181. 

In the second sentence of the following paragraph the 
comma is used between clauses in balance : 

The awful retribution which is to fall upon Germany for the 
next cycle of years is already foreshadowed. Germany's men 
are slaughtered or crippled, her women are bereft. Upon them 
rests the curse of grinding toil performed under the unpitying 
scorn of a whole world for a people who delivered up their 
souls and minds at the bidding of rulers who saved them the 
trouble of thinking for themselves, reading justice, doing right. 
—New York Evening Sun, July 20, 1918. 



80 Modern Punctuation 

As a matter of course, balance may. be managed with the 
semicolon or in successive sentences. The balancing 
comma is dependent on circumstances of structure and 
movement of which the semicolon and period are inde- 
pendent. 

For correlation, usually involving balance, the typical 
point is the semicolon. But circumstances may suggest 
the comma. 

I know that while ordinary frugality is a peasant virtue self- 
restraint is a patrician quality of the highest order. Wasteful- 
ness is not only foolish, it is essentially vulgar. — Bliss Carman in 
War Thrift, as cited in the New York Evening Sun, July 22, 
1918. 

Where two or more clauses have a modifier in common, 
light pointing is often sufficient, as in the following sen- 
tence from an editorial in the Saturday Evening Post: 

Her currency sells at twenty cents on the dollar, the population 
of her capital faces starvation day after day, there is want 
everywhere — because intangible wealth in the form of industrial 
organization and discipline has been destroyed. 

Semicolons would group the subordinate clause withHhe 
last main clause, and conceal its relation to the other 
members of the series. 

In many cases with the comma there is only an appear- 
ance of coordination. In tho first of the following sen- 
tences the first clause is a preliminary group not coordi- 
nate with the second. 

I repeat, he is clearly within his rights. 
He leaves this afternoon, he tells me. 



Semicolon for Series or Balance 81 

The Semicolon without Connective 

With no link word between successive statements the 
comma is too light unless supported by special circum- 
stances of structure or momentum. The period, though 
not obtrusive, may give the groups more than their due 
weight in the passage. Midway between period and comma 
is the semicolon. It gives the preceding and following 
clauses a higher rank in the paragraph than the comma 
would give them, a lower rank than they would have if 
grouped as sentences. As formal link words are sparingly 
used in modern writing, varied clause pointing is more 
than ever necessary for distinct but informal grouping. 
Ability to use the semicolon adds considerably to a writer 's 
resources. 

Clauses separated by the semicolon are sometimes in 
series, sometimes in balance. A common type of sentence 
with the semicolon is in this form: 

It is not a question of surrender or abdication ; it is a question 
rather of give and take. — C. Alphonso Smith, O. Henry Biog- 
raphy, p. 241. 

The second clause repeats with addition the idea of the 
first. The comma or period might replace the semicolon 
in this particular case — if proper weight and grouping 
in the paragraph permitted — but neither would give so 
distinctly the effect of balance. 

The second sentence of the following passage illustrates 
the use of the semicolon for statements in series. Periods 
would give the statements exaggerated emphasis and would 
affect the movement disagreeably. 

By the year 1810 it may fairly be said to have reached matu- 
rity. Scott had attained his poetical zenith; Wordsworth had 



82 Modern Punctuation 

produced nearly all his best work; Coleridge's annus mirabilis 
lay already far in the past. To the general public, indeed, these 
writers were still strange, nay in some cases hardly known. — 
T. S. Omond, The Romantic Triumph, p. 4. 



Colon or Dash without Connective 

Where the first clause of a compound sentence is a formal 
introduction to the second, the relation is ordinarily 
marked by the colon. The use of the colon without marked 
anticipatory quality is comparatively infrequent. 

The following sentences begin with formally introductory 
clauses : 

One other thing Wordsworth learned in those early years: he 
learned to know a man when *he saw him. — C. T. Winchester, 
Wordsworth: How to Know Him, p. 13. 

The war has produced no greater paradox than this: Unnatu- 
ralized Bohemians in the United States are technically enemy 
aliens, because they are subjects of the Austro -Hungarian Em- 
pire. — Saturday Evening Post, June 1, 1918. 

The capital after the colon in the second example is 
anomalous. So far as pointing is concerned th^re is only 
a clause break, but the capital gives its group an appear- 
ance of sentence rank. 

The following sentences illustrate the use of the com- 
pounding colon without clear anticipatory quality: 

That hostility between romanticism and classicism is funda- 
mental: we cannot escape it. — Paul Elmer More, The Drift of 
Romanticism, p. 225.. 

It may be that he is, like Montaigne, a man who has made up 
his mind not to make up his mind: in which case he has sub- 
scribed to the most catholic of all "isms" — skepticism. — Stuart 
P. Sherman, On Contemporary Literature, p. 6. 



Suppression of Subject or Verb 83 

In either sentence the semicolon might replace the colon 
with slight change of effect. Many writers use the com- 
pounding colon only after formally introductory groups. 
The compounding dash is an abrupt or emphatic mark, 
properly the sign of apposition or shifted construction. 

After a Liberty Loan campaign, a War Savings Stamp cam- 
paign — how can it be otherwise? For the stay-at-homes, the 
noncombatants, this war is one contribution of money after 
another, according to one's means and capacity for earning. — 
New York Times, June 18, 1918. 

Such a condition of life fosters not only thrift and independ- 
ence, but those neighborly sympathies which are impossible 
without a certain isolation — it is hard to feel neighborly sympathy 
toward the party living in the next flat. — C. T. Winchester, 
Wordsworth: How to Know Him, p. 14. 

The dash as a mark of clause apposition is less formal than 
the colon. 



Elliptical and Subordinate Clauses 

The difference between a full clause and one with a part 
implied may be simply a difference of weight, not of value. 
A group with subject or verb suppressed is often more 
effective than the heavier full clause. " Except in the 
most studied and formal discourse," says Mr. L. A. Sher- 
man (Analytics of Literature, p. 280), "men incline always 
to disburdened and contracted phrases, not only to save 
effort, but the better to keep pace with the thought within." 

A group which should be pointed as a main clause may 
be technically an appositive, a participial phrase, an ad- 
verbial clause, or other subordinate element. 

It sounds like a cabinet minister who has lost an honoured and 
beloved wife; not like an assassin who has lured his wife to a 



84 Modem Punctuation 

lonely spot, and there pitilessly killed her. — Agnes Repplier, 
Counter-Currents, p. 16. 

There are some men who seem incapable of comprehending the 
fact that it is the present meaning of a word which determines the 
propriety of its use; not its past meaning, still less its meaning 
in the tongue from which it came. — Thomas R. Lounsbury, The 
Standard of Usage in English, p. 43. 

The typical newspaper paragraph contains from 35 to 75 
words, whereas the average paragraph in ordinary prose is from 
150 to 250 words in length. — W. G. Bleyer, Types of News Writ- 
ing, p. 11. 

In the first sentence the group following the semicolon is 
technically an adverbial phrase. In the second, the group 
beginning not is in series. In the third, the clause fol- 
lowing the comma is technically subordinate. In all 
such cases grammatical classification yields to rhetorical 
purposes. 



CHAPTER V 

THE POINTING OF RESTRICTIVE AND NON- 
RESTRICTIVE, PRELIMINARY, PARENTHETI- 
CAL, AND "AFTERTHOUGHT" MATTER 

The cases falling within this chapter may be classified 
under two heads: 

1. Limiting and modifying elements: adjectival, ap- 
positive, and adverbial. Appositives are strictly adjectival 
in function, but are often treated separately. 

2. Preliminary, parenthetical, or "afterthought" mat- 
ter which cannot be classed as adjectival or adverbial. 

Either division may contain matter which is thought to 
have been transposed from the position assigned it by the 
laws of nature. The two classes are rhetorically akin, 
sometimes indistinguishable except by the application of 
grammatical distinctions which are beside the point; and 
the same considerations of clear grouping, just emphasis, 
and good movement are to be applied to them with ref- 
erence to punctuation. For this reason they will be treated 
separately only so far as may be necessary to clearness. 

I. Limiting and Modifying Elements 

The groups belonging in this class are those which define 
or qualify any part of a sentence functioning as substan- 
tive, adjective, adverb, or verb. Modifying elements fall 
into two general classes, or else lie on the border-line be- 

85 



86 Modern Punctuation 

tween them: (1) Elements clearly required for definition, 
or necessary to structure ; called restrictive. Usually open. 
(2) Elements clearly non-restrictive, additional, or par- 
enthetical; not required for purposes of limitation; 
capable of being omitted without ruin of structure and 
without leaving the sentence obviously or painfully indef- 
inite. Usually pointed. 

In the following sentence, from page 45 of G. K. Ches- 
terton's Crimes of England, the appositive name and the 
modifiers of went are restrictive ; the relative clause is non- 
restrictive. 

That great Englishman Charles Fox, who was as national as 
Nelson, went to his death with the firm conviction that England 
had made Napoleon. 

As that great Englishman is indefinite, the name Charles 
Fox is grouped with it ; but the relative clause, being un- 
necessary to definition, is separately grouped. The ad- 
jective complement as national as Nelson is necessary to 
structure. 

If one writes / never use a towel, ivhich has been used 
by anybody else, the separate grouping leaves towel univer- 
sal. The sentsnce appears to mean (1) I never use a 
towel, (2) an unspecified and generic towel has been used 
by somebody else. 

The distinction between restrictive and non-restrictive 
is of the utmost importance, but for purposes of punctua- 
tion is not always decisive. The character of a group 
as restrictive or otherwise does not always determine point- 
ing even when clear; and many modifiers, especially ad- 
verbs, are difficult to classify. 

In the following sentences groups which seem clearly non- 
restrictive are properly left open : 



Restrictive and Non-Restrictive 87 

Which has proved wiser, as we look back, Johnson who ridi- 
culed Gray's poetry, or Boswell who sat up all night reading 
it? — John Bailey, Dr. Johnson and His Circle, p. 66. 

Quite late in the Anglo-Saxon period — about the year 1000 — 
there is a poem on an English subject in which this heroic 
spirit is most thoroughly displayed: the poem on the Battle of 
Maldon which was fought on the Essex shore in 993 between 
Byrhtnoth alderman of East Anglia and a host of vikings whose 
leader (though he is not mentioned in the poem) is known as 
Olaf Tryggvason.-^W. P. Ker, English Literature: Medieval, 
p. 38. 

Our knowledge of these peoples in the first century of our 
era is drawn from Roman writers, from Julius Caesar who had 
fought against them, and from Tacitus, who described them in 
his Germania (written in 98) and Annals. — J. G. Robertson, 
Outlines of the History of German Literature, p. 4. 

In the last sentence the two relative clauses, though super- 
fically parallel, are treated in different ways. 

In the following sentence a restrictive group is pointed 
off: 

We have all of late been made familiar with the somewhat 
unfortunate remark of an English writer, that the spelling of 
Shakespeare was good enough for him. — Thomas R. Lounsbury, 
English Spelling and Spelling Reform, p. 24. 

But these cases are out of the ordinary. As a rule 
modifiers clearly restrictive are grouped with their prin- 
cipal elements, and non-restrictives are grouped separately. 
When a modifier is on the border line between classes, the 
writer must decide the case on its merits. 

The following sentences contain modifiers which might 
be differently treated: 

Managers, being the most conservative people on earth, ex- 
cept compositors, will honestly try to convince the naive drama- 



88 Modern Punctuation 

tist that effects can only be obtained ih the precise way in 
which effects have always been obtained, and that this and that 
rule must not be broken on pain of outraging the public. — 
Arnold Bennett, The Author's Craft, p. 71f. 

The modern drama was evolved in Germany as elsewhere 
from the church liturgy. In the tenth century the Easter and 
Christmas services were invested with a certain dramatic char- 
acter; the events celebrated at these festivals were narrated by the 
priests in dialogue, and even acted. — J. G. Robertson, Outlines 
of the History of German Literature, p. 19. 

In the sentence from Mr. Bennett, except compositors might 
be treated as restrictive. In the second passage it would 
be possible to set off as elsewhere and in the tenth century. 
Classification of the three cases into restrictive and non- 
restrictive would be uncertain or difficult. In such cases 
the decision to punctuate or not will have to be made on 
grounds of emphasis and movement. 

Other things equal, the open restrictive group is lighter 
and more rapid. The pointing of a modifier affects at once 
the movement, the grouping, the distribution of emphasis. 

The Frankish Emperor Lewis the Pious is said to have taken 
a disgust at the heathen poetry which he had learned when he 
was young. — W. P. Ker, English Literature: Medieval, p. 43f. 

The Frankish Emperor, Lewis the Pious, is said to have taken 
a disgust at the heathen poetry, which he had learned when he 
was young. [Three commas inserted.] 

The interpolated commas imply — what is not true — that 
Frankish Emperor and heathen poetry have been made 
definite by the context. The first two commas emphasize 
Frankish Emperor, and they subordinate Lewis the Pious, 
at the same time suspending attention upon the name. 
The third comma leaves heathen poetry unrestricted, giving 
the impression that the Emperor had learned all the 






Indeterminate Groups 89 

heathen poetry and had afterwards become disgusted with 
it. The commas also affect the movement of the sentence. 
Non-restrictive commas are employed economically in 
modern writing. A sentence like this looks strange: 

To prevent, therefore, any mistake, on the part of the pupil, 
as to the meaning of a parenthetical phrase or clause, and to 
enable him to insert the right points by distinguishing it with 
some degree of accuracy from the parenthesis, from which it 
derives its name, we may have to anticipate a little what will be 
laid down and illustrated in the next chapter. — John Wilson, 
Treatise on English Punctuation, twentieth edition (1870), p. 64. 

Where a group is of indeterminate kind, the writer has 
the choice of using or omitting marks, according to the cir- 
cumstances of the case. With groups clearly restrictive or 
the opposite there is usually no choice ; but there is always 
the option of recasting the sentence. 

The chapter in which the error was made has been revised. 
The third chapter, the one in which the error was made, has 
been revised. 

The second form has a non-restrictive group with two sus- 
pending marks. Which form is better depends on the 
requirements of the individual passage. 



' ' Transposed ' ' Modifiers 

An adjective or adverb element necessary to definition or 
structure is ordinarily open, whatever its position. If so- 
called transposed elements are pointed, the decisive reason 
is not transposition. 

A man bold enough to try it may succeed. 

A stone rolling down a mountain gathers no moss. 

Three times he attempted the leap. 



90 Modern Punctuation 

Bold enough to try it is transposed but restrictive, and 
therefore should not be fenced off from man. Modifiers of 
stone in the second sentence and attempted in the third are 
likewise transposed. In the following sentence a trans- 
posed modifier is set off because the group beginning 
rendered necessary is non-restrictive : 

In this movement of troops, rendered necessary by the great 
local success which is causing such enthusiasm all over the world, 
we see the most important advantage from Foch's masterly coup. 
—New York Evening Sun, July 20, 1918. 

The pointing United we stand, divided we fall is quite 
permissible, in fact better than United, we stand; divided, 
we fall. 

The normal position of an adverb modifying a verb is 
near the verb — before it, just after it, or between the parts 
of the verb phrase, as in the expressions never moved, came 
today, has always seemed right. But adverbial modifiers 
are often placed at the beginning of the sentence, and in 
this position may be either pointed or not, according to re- 
quirements of clear grouping and proper emphasis. Some 
of the transposed groups in the following passage are 
pointed, others are open: 

Without membership, it professes to exert great power at the 
polls. Although little is known of its resources, it is always well 
supplied with money. In everything except the bullying of 
public officers it works wholly in the dark. . . . 

... If any other private or personal interest were guilty 
of such an intrusion the Capitol would be in an uproar. There 
would be an inquiry certainly, and there might be prosecutions. 
— From an editorial in the New York World. 

The points used to set off or enclose groups which serve 
as modifiers, preliminary or parenthetical expressions, and 



Modifiers without Punctuation 91 

afterthoughts, are the comma, the dash or comma with 
dash, curves, the colon, and the semicolon. A modifying 
element is sometimes treated as a sentence, or even as a 
paragraph. The use of brackets for parenthetical matter 
is usually incidental to their main purpose, which is to 
distinguish interpolated from quoted matter. 



Open Modifiers 

The following sentences have appositives and modifiers 
not pointed: 

We shall then be making that rare advance in wisdom which 
consists :n abandoning our illusions the better to attain our 
ideals. — George Santayana, Poetry and Religion, p. 250. 

An experienced writer means a point as definitely as he means 
a word. — Arlo Bates, Preface to an edition of Poems of John 
Keats, p. vii. 

Reinke the Fox is in disgrace; every animal has some accu- 
sation to bring against him, and Brun the bear is despatched by 
King Lion to Malepertus, to summon Reinke before the court. 
But Brun is outwitted by the Fox's cunning; so, too, is Hintze 
the cat. — J. G. Robertson, Outlines of the History of German 
Literature, p. 61. 

The first sentence has a restrictive relative clause, the 
second a restrictive adverbial clause with as. In the pas- 
sage from Mr. Robertson there are three names with restric- 
tive appositives. In the following sentence there are 
several adverbial groups without pointing: 

By joint action these inevitable failures will be considered 
as they arise, and no Senator or Representative will find excuse 
for sensation or demagogy except as he may hope to profit by 
it personally and politically. — New York World (editorial), 
March 16, 1918. 



92 Modern Punctuation 

Punctuated Modifiers 

Where a modifier should be set off by a point or pair of 
points, the comma is usually the lightest mark. The dash 
is more abrupt, the colon more formal. Curves are mostly 
limited to cases in which the enclosed modifier is felt as 
parenthetical. The semicolon when used to mark off an 
appositive or other modifier gives the impression that the 
group in question is only technically subordinate. 

The works of the past, even of the immediate past, are pre- 
sented to us not in the spelling of the past, but in that of the 
present. — Thomas R. Lounsbury, English Spelling and Spelling 
Reform, p. 23. 

The group even of the immediate past is a non-restrictive 
modifier thrown in between the subject and its verb. In 
the following sentence the punctuated modifier comes at 
the end of the sentence and therefore takes only one comma : 

Footnotes should never be run into the text in manuscripts, 
whether in parentheses or otherwise. — Manual of Style of the 
University of Chicago Press, p. 114. 

In the first of the following sentences the dash groups 
the succeeding words as being in apposition with the preced- 
ing series ; in the second the two dashes set off an emphatic 
parenthetical appositive. 

The so-called "list" books, however, are the heavy infantry, 
the heavy artiller}' — the main body of the publishing army. — R. S. 
Yard, The Publisher, p. 28. 

The haphazard, chance reader, who scans at random seeking 
only the strikingly interesting or important news — the average 
American reader — is not willing to spend the time to read through 
the various departments in search of news. — G. M. Hyde, News- 
paper Editing, p. 183. 






Colon, Period, and Curves 93 

The colon is the typical mark for the end of a formal 
introductory group followed by an appositive, which may 
be a series. The nearest equivalent of the colon for this use 
is the dash. 

The required books are as follows: the Concise Oxford Dic- 
tionary, or approved equivalent; Snyder and Martin's Book of 
English Literature; and George Philip Krapp's Modern English, 
Its Growth and Present Use. 

But an introductory group is often treated as a sentence, 
the specifications following in a series of sentences. A 
paragraph may begin with sentences of these types, all 
introductory but none needing the colon: 

He has proposed a truly remarkable plan. 
Let me tell you what to do. 

What do you suppose he is planning for us to do? 
The provisions of the act are as follows. (I cite the official 
text.) 

In the last case the intervening parenthesis makes the 
period better pointing than the colon in spite of the formal 
wording. 

Curves are often useful for light and brief parenthetical 
appositives or modifiers, seldom for long groups. 

The year of the Revolution (1789) marks a boundary in both 
literary and political history. 

The committee named by the President consists of Messrs. 
Smith (chairman), Jones, Knapp, and Bowen. 

The curves in the second sentence are a convenient means 
of showing that chairman is not in series but in apposition. 
The alternative style, with semicolon after chairman, would 
be too heavy to use through the series. 



94 Modern Punctuation 

In the following sentence the semicolon retains its char- 
acter as a coordinating point, the succeeding words being 
rhetorically a main clause : 

On the other hand, where words are obviously foreign in char- 
acter, we can note a tendency, which has been at work for the 
last two or three centuries, to prefer what is called "linguistic 
harmony" ; to choose, among two competing forms, the one which 
is homogeneous throughout. — L. P. Smith, The English Language, 
p. 89f. 

Relative Clauses 

A relative clause may be open or pointed. If the pro- 
noun is not expressed (as in the note I sent him) the clause 
is regularly open. If the relative that is used, the clause 
is ordinarily open, unless in series or some other relation 
which may require pointing. With which or who a rela- 
tive clause may be either pointed or open. The relative 
clause may be to all intents and purposes a main clause. 

"Thou goest with women ; forget not thy whip," said Nietzsche. 
It will be observed that he does not say "poker"; which might 
come more naturally to the mind of a more common or Christian 
wife-beater. — G. K. Chesterton, The Appetite of Tyranny, p. 42. 

But ordinarily the coordinate relative clause takes a comma 
or pair of commas. 

The memorandum is to be handed to Mr. Phelps, who will give 
you further instructions. 

In the two sentences following there are relative clauses 
with parenthetical pointing : 

If a sense of humour forces us to be candid with ourselves, 
then it can be reconciled, not only with the cardinal virtues — which 



Relative Clauses. Appositives 95 

are but a chilly quartette — but with the flaming charities which 
have consumed the souls of saints. — Agnes Repplier, Americans 
and Others, p. 60. 

For when he [Columbus] heard the word Caniba (which is 
simply a variant of Carib or Caribes) he thought that it signi- 
fied that this savage people were subjects of the Grand Khan of 
Tartary, whose domains he believed to be not far distant. — L. P. 
Smith, The English Language, p. 200. 

It often happens that a relative clause is made into an 
emphatic terminal group. 

Robert Browning established himself and his carpet-bag in com- 
fortable lodgings on the Acropolis — which he spells with a K to 
show his intimate acquaintance with recent research. — John Jay 
Chapman, "The Greek Genius," in Atlantic Classics, second 
series, p. 192. 

Now and then a relative clause takes rank as a sentence: 

Best paid of all the artists are the cartoonists. Which is equiva- 
lent to saying that not many artists can make cartoons. — John 
L. Given, Making a Newspaper, p. 246. 



Special Cases of Apposition 

An appositive group may be an instance, a set of partic- 
ulars, a quotation, or an alternative name; and cases of 
apposition may cross the boundaries of series pointing, the 
pointing of main clauses, even sentence and paragraph 
pointing. If an introductory remark is made in the form 
There are three recommendations which I ask permission to 
offer, the following matter may be called appositive whether 
developed in the same sentence after a colon or in a series 
of sentences. 

Where the appositive is merely another name for the pre- 



96 Modern Punctuation 

ceding substantive, clear grouping may or may not require 
pointing. To write a quotation or citation might suggest 
that the terms mean different things, in which case there 
would be need for pointing or recasting. But where the 
two names obviously relate to the same thing, pointing is 
not required. When Mrs. Atherton speaks of "the heroic 
or goddess type of woman" {The White Morning, p. 186n.), 
it is clear that only one type is meant. To point with two 
commas the expression the heroic, or goddess, type of 
woman would be abominable. In the following sentence 
from a news story in the New York Sun the appositive 
adjectives standard and clock are so clearly equivalent that 
pointing would be objectionable : 

The only change made will be in the relation between standard 
or clock time and sun or true time. 

In the following sentences, on the other hand, pointing 
is desirable: 

It would be unfair to the author to infer that this was nitrous 
oxid, more familiarly known as "laughing gas." — Edwin E. Slos- 
son, Six Major Prophets, p. 73. 

The next to the last line in a paragraph ought not to end 
in a divided word; and the last line (the "breakline") should, 
in measures of 15 ems and up, contain at least four letters. — Rule 
of the University of Chicago Press. 

The last sentence contains a parenthetical appositive. 



Adjectives, Adverbs, and Verbs in Apposition 

Though the appositive relation is technically confined to 
substantive elements, it may be extended to adjectives, 
adverbs, and verbs. 



Appositive Groups 97 

Matthew Arnold, rather late in his life (in the introductory 
essay to Mr. T. H. Ward's English Poets), shows that he has been 
reading some old French authors. — W. P. Ker, English Litera- 
ture: Medieval, p. 9. 

The Icelandic histories — including the history of Norway for 
three or four centuries — may be consulted for the domestic life 
of the people who made so bad a name for themselves as plunder- 
ers abroad. — lb., p. 24. 

In these sentences the appositives are of course not mere 
equivalents, being rather limiting or specifying appositives. 
The same thing is true of the verbal appositive in the sen- 
tence following : 

A dog not only prefers a customary and unpleasant smell; he 
hates a good one. A perfume pricks his nose, — gives a wrench 
to his dog nature, perhaps tends to "undermine those moral prin- 
ciples" without which dog "society cannot exist," as the early 
critics used to say of Ibsen. — F. M. Colby, Constrained Attitudes, 
p. 137. 

In these sentences there are cases of clauses and sentence 
apposition : 

That is the first significance of President Wilson's action. The 
second is this: it indicates that he may be beginning to realize 
the potentialities of the Saloniki front and its possibilities for 
victoriously shortening the war, even at this late hour. — Demetra 
Vaka, "Why Are We at Peace with Bulgaria?" in Collier's 
Weekly, June 15, 1918. 

"Perfected good-breeding," says Dr. Johnson, "consists in 
having no particular mark of any profession, but a general 
elegance of manners." (A standard that Dr. Johnson himself 
did not entirely attain.) — Irving Babbitt, Literature and the 
American College, p. 21. 



98 Modern Punctuation 

The first passage (second sentence) uses the colon as a com- 
pounding and at the same time appositive point. In the 
second, the appositive is set as a parenthetical sentence. 



The Semicolon as a Mark of Apposition 

In general, the semicolon is not a mark of apposition. 
But sometimes it is used before an elaborate appositive 
group, before namely and certain other expressions, or 
before an appositive group which is felt as an elliptical 
main clause. 

In the title of a book by Mr. W. L. Klein, Why We Punc- 
tuate; or, Reason versus Rule in the Use of Marks, the 
semicolon is the boundary between the alternative names. 
If the comma after or is in any way useful, the semicolon 
may be necessary. But this use of the comma and semi- 
colon will impress most people as being stilted. A better 
use of the appositive semicolon appears in the following 
sentence from a Saturday Evening Post editorial: 

Congress has passed some admirable legislation ; and then there 
is the revenue bill — a war-profits measure that taxes everything 
except war profits; a put-the-burden-on-wealth bill that in the 
clause taxing professional earnings and salaries a final eight per 
cent exempts unearned incomes, including the salaries of a good 
many congressmen. 

The group following the second semicolon is practically a 
main clause. 

The Case of "Namely" and Related Words 

According to Wilson's rule, often repeated and some- 
times followed, "a semicolon is put before as, viz., to wit, 
namely, i.e., or that is, when they precede an example or 
a specification of particulars or subjects enumerated." 



Appositives with "Namely" 99 

To Greece we are . indebted for the three principal orders of 
architecture; namely, the Doric, the Ionic, and the Corinthian. 

But recent practice has gone far toward displacing the 
semicolon in favor of the colon, the dash, or the comma. 

There are three genders in Latin : namely, masculine, feminine, 
and neuter. — Example given by W. D. Orcutt, The Writer's Desk 
Book, p. 10. 

As Russia is a country now practically all surrounded by Ger- 
mans, and these Germans may be assumed to have no present 
idea of giving safe conduct to any military expedition of the 
Allies, so-called intervention in Russia means and can only mean 
one thing — that is, a landing at Vladivostok. — New York Globe, 
June 13, 1918. 

In Siberia the mental consequence of the Czarism, namely, 
intellectual stagnation, has never existed. — New York Evening 
Post (foreign correspondence), July 3, 1918. 

After the Peace of Campo Formio only one power remained at 
war with France, namely England. — Charles Downer Hazen, 
Modern European History, p. 168. 

The style with preceding colon and following comma is 
highly formal. That with comma both preceding and fol- 
lowing is almost invariably clumsy. A less formal style 
is that with preceding dash. The lightest and most logical 
form is that in which namely is grouped with the expres- 
sion following, as in the sentence from Mr. Hazen. 

The style in which namely is followed by the colon is 
recommended by the University of Chicago Press "if what 
follows consists of one or more grammatically complete 
clauses. ' ' But many newspaper men prefer to use the colon 
after namely only at the end of a paragraph. Where 
namely takes a following colon, the preceding point will be 
comma or dash. 

Before that is or for example there is sometimes advantage 



100 Modern Punctuation 

in making a sentence break. This arrangement and some 
others illustrated in the following sentences will obviate 
the stiffness of the namely formula. 

The collaboration of Beaumont and Fletcher has been submitted 
to much close scrutiny, and it is not to be denied that certain 
results have been obtained. For example, Fletcher practiced 
habitually a very distinctive and original form of blank verse, 
and one to a marked degree in contrast with that of Beaumont. 
— F. E. Sehelling, Introduction to a volume of plays by Beaumont 
and Fletcher, p. 8. 

The scheme of polity which he [Calvin] contrived, however 
mixed with the erroneous notions of his day, enforced at least 
the two cardinal laws of human society — viz. self-control as the 
foundation of virtue, self-sacrifice as the condition of the com- 
mon weal. — Quoted by John Morley, Critical Miscellanies, vol. 
IV, p. 125. 

By origin it [mob] is not merely slang, but it belongs to a 
peculiarly odious kind of slang — that is, the cant of the learned 
taken up by the mass of the people. — Thomas R. Lounsbury, 
The Standard of Usage in English, p. 65. 

In the second passage there is light pointing even with the 
old-fashioned viz. In the third passage the introductory 
that is follows a dash, which is much less formal than the 
colon would be. 



Adverbial Groups Following Conjunctions 

Where an adverbial group follows a conjunction at the 
beginning of a sentence or clause, there are three possible 
styles. The adverbial group may be open, or pointed at the 
end, or pointed at both beginning and end. 

Yet in the midst of its urbanity and order forces were gather- 
ing for its destruction. — G. H. Mair, English Literature: Modern, 
p. 137f. 



Adverbial Groups with Conjunctions 101 

Luther said of the people of Flanders that if you took a Flem- 
ing in a sack and carried him over France or Italy, he would man- 
age to learn the tongues. — W. P. Ker, English Literature: 
Medieval, p. 60. 

But, after all, Mill was not of them, and he was not at home 
with them. — John Morley, Critical Miscellanies, vol. IV, p. 158. 

The open style is the lightest, the style with a pair of 
points least rapid. All three are in good use ; and any rule 
that might be framed for cases of the kind would be decep- 
tive. Though, a theoretical argument might be drawn 
against the second style, with punctuation only at the end 
of the modifier, it is thoroughly established in modern prac- 
tice as a good style. 

The difference is of utility rather than correctness. The 
open style, as in this sentence from Henry Bradley's Mak- 
ing of English (p. 731), effects a rapid grouping of the 
modifier with the following words : 

Literary culture perhaps on the whole conduces to tolerance of 
certain kinds of innovation in vocabulary, but with regard to 
grammar its tendency is strongly conservative. 

In the following sentence the comma after acquainted is 
sufficient for clear grouping of the adverbial clause : 

We in Ame: lea have had our Walt Whitman, and if there is 
any variety of "unabashed sentiment" with which the fiction of 
the last twenty years has not made us acquainted, we are willing 
to forego further knowledge of it. — Henry Mills Alden, Magazine 
Writing and the New Literature, p. 76. 

A precisian might point the sentence thus : 

We in America have had our Walt Whitman, and, if there is 
any variety of "unabashed sentiment" with which the fiction of 



102 Modern Punctuation 

the last twenty years has not made us acquainted, we are willing 
to forego further knowledge of it. 

The additional comma emphasizes and, checks the movement 
awkwardly, and gives the i/-clause the appearance of being 
parenthetical. The original pointing with one comma 
makes the ^/-clause sufficiently distinct. 



II. Preliminary, Intermediate, and " Afterthought" 
Matter 

-A distinction somewhat resembling that between restric- 
tive and non-restrictive modifiers may be applied to 
preliminary, intermediate, and afterthought expressions. 
Some are essential to sentence or paragraph structure, 
some are formally inessential, others are of indeterminate 
kind. Of course none have any right to be useless. 

If a sharp line had to be drawn between these and modi- 
fiers, there would be need of excluding all modifying ele- 
ments (including appositives) which limit a particular part 
of the sentence. There would remain qualifying and con- 
nective expressions belonging to the whole sentence or 
clause, vocatives and exclamations, when not treated as 
main clauses or sentences, and formally independent 
clauses thrown into the sentence. But absolute phrases and 
even parenthetical explanations may often be classed as 
modifiers; and expressions clearly appositive or adverbial 
may be felt as parenthetical. As no clear distinction can 
be maintained, modifiers may be classed with the other kind 
of expressions so far as they have similar rhetorical effects. 

The distinction of preliminary, parenthetical, and after- 
thought elements is with reference to position. A voca- 
tive ("my dear sir") or expression like of course may 
stand in any of the three positions. 



Parenthetical Groups 103 

Mr. Klein limits the name parenthesis to expressions 
without grammatical connection — established, in his opin- 
ion, by the presence of a conjunction or preposition. He 
gives the name "modified parenthesis" to slightly paren- 
thetical matter with grammatical connection. In the first 
of the following sentences he takes page 5 as being paren- 
thetical matter requiring curves. In the second, he considers 
on page 5 "slightly parenthetical," grammatical connec- 
tion being established by the preposition. For slightly 
parenthetical matter he specifies commas. 

The author says (page 5) that he did not go to London. 
The author says, on page 5, that he did not go to London. 

But the distinction is arbitrary. The form page 5 in 
curves is more distinctly parenthetical, but either phrase 
with either pointing does the same grammatical work, 
qualifying says by telling where. A parenthetical clause 
like it is said will ordinarily take a pair of commas, though 
lacking ' ' grammatical connection ' ' ; and a clause beginning 
with a conjunction or relative may be felt and punctuated 
exactly like a clause which would be rated as technically 
independent. 

Parenthetical expressions, and similar groups at the 
beginning or the end of the sentence, are elements not neces- 
sary to definition or structure. As a matter of course 
parenthetical words in careful writing are only in form 
unnecessary. Parentheses, preliminary expressions, and 
afterthoughts are only apparently disconnected in sense. 
They have logical dependence as qualifiers or explanations. 
Otherwise they should be discarded. 

1. Preliminary Matter 

Preparatory expressions are sometimes open, sometimes 
pointed. If a preliminary group is light and its relation 



104 Modern Punctuation 

clear without pointing, the effect of punctuation may be 
injurious. A point at the end of a preliminary group is 
a suspension mark to be used only for good reason. 

A given expression like now or first may pass from the 
open to the punctuated type in the same passage; and 
pointed preliminaries may be punctuated in several ways. 

First, the very insularity on which we insisted was barbaric, 
in its refusal of a seat in the central senate of the nations. — G. 
K. Chesterton, The Crimes of England, p. 109. 

First: Forget as completely as you can all your present 
notions about the nature of verse and poetry. — Arnold Bennett, 
Literary Taste, p. 74. 

But in the maxim First catch your rabbit there would be 
no temptation to use even a comma. The colon in the sen- 
tence from Mr. Bennett is in keeping with the didactic tone 
of its context. 

The following sentences illustrate some of the ordinary 
types of preliminaries. The point most often used is the 
comma; but there are cases with dash (or comma with 
dash), colon, and exclamation point. 

Now it is just at this point that I for one, and most men who 
love truth as well as tales, begin to lose interest. — G. K. Chester- 
ton, The Crimes of England, p. 97. 

Now, investigation of the dialect of the romance shows that 
the language is substantially like that current in Chaucer's dis- 
trict and Gower's. — W. E. Mead, Introduction to The Squyr of 
Lowe Degre, p. lxviii. 

Still, this part of their work has never been made their main 
object, or even a main object. — Thomas R. Lounsbury, The Stand- 
ard of Usage in English, p. 122f. 

Of course newspapers are the first to spread far and wide 
the formations which are constantly springing up in a language 
possessed of vitality. — lb., p. 53. 



Preliminary Expressions 105 

Of course, the story of Charlemagne was not the same sort of 
thing in England or Norway that it was in France. — W. P. Ker, 
English Literature: Medieval, p. 70. 

My dear sir, you are mistaken. 

My dear sir! consider what you are saying! — Example given 
by Wendell Phillips Garrison, "A Dissolving View of Punctua- 
tion," Atlantic Monthly, August, 1906. 

Preliminaries are not often pointed with the exclamation 
mark, even if exclamations. The second sentence of the 
following passage from Viscount Morley illustrates the 
usual pointing of the exclamation why. 

For if we were always candid, always on the watch against 
over-statement, always anxious to be even fairer to our adver- 
sary's case than to our own, what would become of politics? 
Why, there would be no politics. — Critical Miscellanies, vol. IV, 
p. 165. 

Expressions like yes and of course may be treated as 
preliminaries, as elliptical clauses, even as sentences. As 
such they may be pointed in a variety of ways. Yes may 
take period, exclamation mark, question mark, comma, 
semicolon, comma, dash, even colon. The pointing will be 
according to the desired tone and emphasis. 

For preliminary vocatives the most frequent point is the 
comma ; but the salutation of a letter may be pointed with 
comma, comma and dash, together, or colon. The colon, 
often with a supernumerary dash, is the most usual mark 
save in friendly letters, and is preferred by many writers 
in letters of whatever kind. 

Absolute phrases at the beginning of a sentence usually 
take the comma. 

Other things equal, the simpler form is better. 

Numbers and letters in formal lists may be counted as 



106 Modern Punctuation 

preliminaries. Paragraph numbers usually take the period. 
Numbers or letters designating divisions of a sentence or 
paragraph are ordinarily enclosed in curves. 



2. Parenthetical Matter 

Parenthetical matter in the strict sense of the term 
includes vocatives, exclamations, transitional expressions, 
absolute phrases, incidental explanations and references, 
and clauses formally independent — all of these in the 
"intermediate" position, not at beginning or end of the 
sentence. But no clear line can be drawn between paren- 
theses and modifiers. In the following sentences there are 
cases of adjectival, appositive, and adverbial parenthesis : 

The Raleigh (N. C.) News and Observer is controlled by Mr. 
Daniels. 

Mr. Chesterton's most important contributions to religious 
thought (Orthodoxy and Heretics) are perhaps the best written 
of his books. 

When the Constitution went into effect (in 1789) the United 
States became a nation. 

A parenthetical expression is part of the thought even 
though introduced with an appearance of modesty as some- 
thing to be noticed in passing. It may vary in importance 
from a page reference to an important qualification or aside 
without which the sentence would lose its point and flavor. 
It may be given unobtrusive form for the sake of greater 
effectiveness, suggestion being sometimes more to the pur- 
pose than direct statement. 

As parenthetical points are suspensive, they need to be 
used with care and economy. When badly placed or too 
frequent they interfere with movement. In the first 
of the following sentences, from an article in a popular 



Objectionable Parentheses 107 

magazine, the parenthesis is awkwardly placed; in the 
second it is managed skilfully: 

The result of this general peaceful penetration, as the Germans 
slyly called it, of Russia appeared in the second campaign of the 
war. 

A man does not need to be the Kaiser in order to perceive that 
the autocrat who conspires to destroy a brother autocrat engages 
in a risky business, since he teaches how any autocracy — including 
his own — may be abolished. 

The objection to frequent parentheses in newspaper 
writing, as voiced in the following words from Mr. E. L. 
Shuman's Practical Journalism (p. 167), arises partly from 
the fact that most newspaper readers prefer a direct style 
permitting easy comprehension. 

The purely parenthetical expression . . . should be used 
sparingly, if at all, in journalistic writing. Editors and news- 
paper readers have an aversion to long parentheses. 

As a matter of course there are frequent parentheses in 
newspaper writing; but long pointed parenthetical groups 
are objectionable save in moderation. Newspaper men pre- 
fer a direct manner of writing. With a tacit allowance of 
fewer than twenty-five points for ten sentences, terminal 
points included, newspaper editorial writers cannot indulge 
very often in parenthetical punctuation. 



Parenthetical Points 

Parenthetical expressions are often open. When pointed 
they take commas, dashes (or commas with dashes), or 
curves. The most frequent parenthetical points are com- 
mas, with dashes second and curves a distant third. Where 



108 Modern Punctuation 

incidental dates and references are frequent, curves may- 
be required oftener than dashes, but seldom in ordinary 
matter. 

The parenthetical expressions that are most likely to be 
open are transitional and qualifying words like therefore, 
nevertheless, indeed, and perhaps. These and other expres- 
sions of similar character may be pointed or open according 
to circumstances. 

It is perhaps the Spencerian view of art that accounts also for 
a curious predilection I have often noticed in philologists for 
vaudeville performances and light summer fiction. — Irving Bab- 
bitt, Literature and the American College, p. 114f. 

A good example of the confusion arising from general terms 
is the term that is more important than any other, perhaps, for 
our present argument. — lb. , p. 3. 

It is not, therefore, from the quarter of license that any danger 
to our speech arises. — Thomas R. Lounsbury, The Standard of 
Usage in English, p. 85. 

Take, for illustration, narrate. This verb, as we have already 
had occasion to note, was once denounced as a Scotticism. It 
therefore lacked that perfect purity which could belong only to 
words whose birth took place south of the Tweed. — lb., p. 195. 

There is no safe rule for such expressions as nevertheless, 
indeed, then, of course, moreover. If felt as integral parts of 
the structure they are usually open. If felt as parentheti- 
cal, and if they and the context are worth the emphasis 
effected by pointing, they are ordinarily punctuated. But 
each case is an individual problem. Such decisions should 
be made by the writer, not left to a compositor. The com- 
positor is likely to be busy enough with the type or the 
machine. 

The following sentences illustrate the ordinary methods 
of pointing parentheses of less than clause rank: 



Parenthetical Points 109 

Now speaking seriously, my dear Professor, it will not do. — G. 
K. Chesterton, The Crim.es of England, p. 23. 

The Convention affirmed the belief of the French nation in a 
Supreme Being and in the immortality of the soul, and accepted 
the confession of the Savoyard Vicar (from the Emile, Bk. IV) 
as the established faith. Skepticism and atheism were pro- 
nounced to be aristocratic and not to be endured. — Paul Monroe, 
A Brief Course in the History of Education, p. 279. 

Unhappily their works are for the most part lost, and it may 
well have been that* much of their speculation was — like that of 
Socrates — not written out, but was confined to conversation and 
oral disputation; — James Harvey Robinson, The New History, 
p. 109. 

My dear Professor in the sentence from Mr. Chesterton is 
an ordinary vocative. The group in curves in the second 
sentence is lighter with this pointing than it would be with 
commas. The third sentence is a typical case with paren- 
thetical dashes. 

Parenthetical interpolations are customarily enclosed in 
brackets. 

"Napoleon said that without him [Rousseau] the French 
Revolution would not have occurred." 

In the following sentences brackets enclose question and 
exclamation marks inserted by way of commentary : 

"The comma is required [?] to indicate an ellipsis." 
"The comma is required [ !] to separate a quotation or similar 
brief expression from the preceding part of the sentence." 

A question or exclamation mark used parenthetically in 
original matter is enclosed in curves. But this type of 
parenthesis is not often useful. In the following specimen 
the parenthetical question mark is a piece of clumsy irony : 

His patriotic (?) offer has been declined. 



110 Modern Punctuation 

The following sentence illustrates a somewhat excep- 
tional case — a parenthetical modifier before its noun as if 
a restrictive group: 

And, in addition to these (perhaps selfish) considerations, we 
might do them the justice to remember that they are not destitute 
of natural affection for their wives and children; but that, on 
the contrary, the safeguarding of the family is, and has always 
been, a powerful factor in war. — Agnes Repplier, Counter-Cur- 
rents, p. 119. 

For long parentheses, especially for those containing 
commas, the points most often used are dashes. But curves 
may happen to be better. Dashes are emphatic, sometimes 
too emphatic. In the following sentence curves are used 
to carry the reader rapidly over the long parenthesis : 

It was this candid, patient, and self-controlled temper that 
provoked the truly remarkable result — a man immersed in unspar- 
ing controversy for most of his fife (controversy, too, on all the 
subjects where difference of opinion is aptest to kindle anger, 
contempt, and even the horrid and irrelevant imputation of 
personal sin), and yet somehow held in general honour as a sort 
of oracle, instead of having presented to him the fatal cup of 
hemlock that has so often been the reformer's portion. — John 
Morley, Critical Miscellanies, vol. IV, p. 167. 

It is impossible to specify, unless arbitrarily, what paren- 
thetical points shall be used in every class of circumstances. 
As in most other questions of structural pointing, the 
writer has to make his decisions on the spot. Blanket rules 
are misleading. 



Intermediate Clause Groups 111 

Parenthetical Clauses 

There are parenthetical clauses both dependent and 
independent in form. A conjunction or relative pronoun 
may give an appearance of structural cohesion without 
making a parenthetical clause less parenthetical in effect. 
Parenthetical clamses are sometimes open ; more often they 
are pointed with commas, dashes, or curves. Commas are 
the lightest points, dashes the most abrupt, curves the most 
likely to seem formal or self-conscious. Though very use- 
ful for light parenthetical explanations, curves are seldom 
useful for groups of clause rank. 

In this sentence the parenthesis as it was takes no 
pointing : 

The social consciousness was not favorable to it [the idea of 
progress], being dominated as it was by the religious belief 
in the degeneracy of a world fallen from grace, and fated to 
worse deterioration before its sudden end, which might come at 
any time. — L. P. Smith, The English Language, p. 225. 

The following sentences include typical cases of paren- 
thetical clauses with commas and dashes : 

His true ambition, and a lofty one it must be counted, was to 
affect the course of events in his time by affecting the course of 
thought. — John Morley, Critical Miscellanies, vol. IV, p. 159. 

We say that these veneered vandals have the perfectly serious 
aim of destroying certain ideas which, as they think, the world 
has outgrown; without which, as we think, the world will die. — 
G. K. Chesterton, The Appetite of Tyranny, p. 22. 

The earliest instance I have chanced to meet of it — though it 
was doubtless used a good deal earlier — is in the correspondence 
of Southey and William Taylor of Norwich. — Thomas R. Louns- 
bury, English Spelling and Spelling Reform, p. 130f. 



112 Modern Punctuation 

He somewhere speaks — I have mislaid the reference — of a 
publisher who was in the habit of speaking about liter atoor. — lb., 
p. 131. 

Some of them are very possibly indifferent; but so far as they 
have spoken — and many have spoken — they have pronounced in its 
favor.— lb., p. 88. 

The following sentences contain parenthetical clauses 
pointed with curves. These are less frequently useful than 
commas or dashes for clause groups, but sometimes are 
better. 

If Socrates were here to-day, we can picture to ourselves how 
he would go round "cross-examining" those of us (there are some 
college presidents in the number) who repeat so glibly the current 
platitudes about liberty and progress, democracy, service, and 
the like; and he would no doubt get himself set down as a public 
nuisance for his pains, as he was by his fellow Athenians. — 
Irving Babbitt, Literature and the American College, p. 3. 

One of the most important items that deceive manufacturers 
(and we must include newspaper publishers in this class) is 
their failure properly to charge off enough for "depreciation" 
and "replacement" every year. — Jason Rogers, Newspaper Build- 
ing, p. 100. 

Frequent use of curves for parenthetical clauses will 
usually seem eccentric; but curves are sometimes the most 
convenient means of grouping. 

Neither curves nor the other points are restricted to any 
particular type of " parenthetical clause. Subordinate 
clauses or independent parenthetical clauses with or with- 
out conjunction may be set off by commas, dashes, or curves. 
The more nearly a part of the main structure, the more 
likely is a parenthesis to be set off with commas ; the more 
distinctly apart from the main structure, the more likely 



Economy of Parentheses 113 

to be set off with curves. But a general rule would be a 
delusion. 

In many cases of parenthesis the safe decision will be to 
get rid of the parenthesis. As a pointed parenthetical 
expression takes two points, a sentence with two paren- 
thetical points and a full stop carries more punctuation 
marks than the- average good modern sentence. With 
clause breaks, series, preliminaries, and afterthoughts to 
punctuate, allowances for parenthetical pointing must be 
moderate. 



Primary and Secondary Parenthesis 

Parenthetical matter within parenthetical is likely to be 
awkward, but not necessarily. 

If the primary points are curves, the secondary paren- 
thesis may be pointed with brackets, but more often it is 
pointed with commas or dashes. If the primary points 
are dashes, the secondary points may be curves or commas. 
The secondary parenthetical group, especially if a phrase 
like perhaps or no doubt, is sometimes open. 

The various expressions criticised by Swift and Beattie and 
Landor constitute but a pitiful handful of the number that have 
from time to time been denounced — often, too, by men of ability 
— as barbarisms and corruptions. — Thomas R. Lounsbury, The 
Standard of Usage in English, p. 56. 

The two central motives of the piece — love between two per- 
sons of unequal (or supposedly unequal) rank, and the fidelity 
of a woman to her absent lover through long years — supplied 
themes of which the romancers and their public seemed never to 
tire. — W. E. Mead, Introduction to The Squyr of Lowe Degre, 
p. xxv. 

He sees the world about him, the world at least that has out- 
grown the ancestral belief in the gods and has not sunk into 



114 Modern Punctuation 

frivolity or sullen skepticism, divided between the two sects of 
the Epicureans and the Stoics. . . . — Paul Elmer More, The 
Drift of Romanticism, p. 92. 

In the sentence from Mr. More the parenthetical phrase 
at least is open, being therefore a sort of restrictive paren- 
thesis. 

In this sentence from an editorial in the Outlook (April 
10, 1918) the secondary parenthesis, within a group in 
curves, is pointed with dashes: 

Ferdinand Foch (the name is, we understand, pronounced with 
the soft ch — Fosh — as a French word, rather than with the gut- 
tural ch as in German) was born in the south of France, and is 
said to be of mingled Basque and Alsatian blood and to derive 
his name from the latter source — many of the Alsatians who have 
been ardent French patriots for generations have names which 
are German in form. 

There is also a secondary parenthesis, we understand, 
pointed with commas. The third dash is an informal com- 
pounding point. 



3. "Afterthoughts" 

The term afterthought is a makeshift. It does not mean 
a thing forgotten until the last second, but an expression 
of parenthetical character placed at the end of the sentence. 

A punctuated group at the end of the sentence is usually 
emphatic by both suspension and position. But there is an 
important exception, the it is said or other tag at the end 
of many newspaper sentences. 

The French submarine Diane, not having been heard from for 
a long time, is considered as lost, it was officially announced today. 



"Afterthought" Groups 115 

The vital part of the sentence is put where it may be seen 
at first glance. 

Modifiers and other expressions at the end of a sentence 
may be pointed or open according to circumstances, pointed 
groups being as a rule more distinct than open groups. If 
a dash precedes, the afterthought is emphasized; if a 
comma precedes, v as in the first two sentences below, the 
greater weight of emphasis is likely to be on the group 
preceding the afterthought. In either case the punctuation 
makes the afterthought more distinct. 

A man who takes great pains with his style is likely in the 
long run to have a devoted following, and to get a hearing, even 
for his indiscretions and ineptitudes. — Stuart P. Sherman, On 
Contemporary Literature, p. 158. 

I have been accused of being a besotted "Victorian" — a kind 
of creature which ought to be extinct, very obnoxious to the 
younger critics, yet still so numerous as to constitute a not 
negligible element in the procession of our days. — lb., Preface. 

It is not the fact, my dear sir. 

Thrice has he ended a sentence with the careless words "and so 
on," and on one page he has referred coarsely to "the business in 
hand" and on another he has said he "pitched upon a word," — 
as if a gentleman would ever pitch on anything; it is the act 
of a drunkard or a ship. — F. M. Colby, Constrained Attitudes, 
p. 142. 

In the third sentence, the terminal expression is an ordi- 
nary vocative. In the sentence from Mr. Colby the long 
group set off with colon and dash is technically a subordi- 
nate clause with a main-clause tag. Like most afterthoughts 
set off by the dash, it is emphatic. 

An appositive group following a colon is not likely to be 
felt as an afterthought, but rather as an essential part of 
the structure. 



116 Modern Punctuation 

The use of curves to enclose matter at the end of a sen- 
tence is anomalous. There is a contradiction between 
the emphatic position and the obviously parenthetical 
pointing. 

Ko-Ko is at various times the statesman, the poet, the lover, 
the man of the world (as when he is tripped up by the Mikado's 
umbrella-carrier). — Simeon Strunsky, Post-Impressions, p. 207. 

This pointing should be used with caution. 



CHAPTER VI 

SERIES, SPECIAL GROUPING, AND 
"ELLIPSIS" POINTING 

This chapter is concerned with the pointing of coordi- 
nate elements in series, except main clauses; with special 
cases of interruption or suspension, as in shifts of struc- 
ture and so-called rhetorical pauses; and with what is 
supposed to be the indication of ellipsis. The traditional 
rule for acknowledgment of ellipsis with the comma involves 
a large assumption. 

I. The Pointing of Series 

A series exists when successive expressions are gram- 
matically coordinate. Even conjunctions, prepositions, 
and interjections may be in series; but for the present 
purpose the important sentence elements are groups func- 
tioning as nouns, adjectives, adverbs, or verbs. Main 
clauses in series belong to the section on Main Clauses in 
Chapter IV. 

The whole or a part of a series may constitute an ap- 
positive or parenthesis, in which case series pointing will 
blend into the pointing of subordinate or parenthetical 
matter. 

It is only when one realizes that Erewhon is more than an 
England in satiric guize, is in fact an Arcadia, that one fully 

117 



118 Modern Punctuation 

appreciates Samuel Butler's spirit. — Francis B. Hackett, In- 
troduction to an edition of Samuel Butler's Erewhon. 

While lashing himself into a lunacy against the French 
Revolution, which only very incidentally destroyed the property 
of the rich, he never criticised (to do him justice, perhaps never 
saw) the English Revolution, which began with the sack of con- 
vents, and ended with the fencing in of enclosures; a revolution 
which sweepingly and systematically destroyed the property of 
the poor. — G. K. Chesterton, The Crimes of England, p. 86. 

The group is in fact an Arcadia in the sentence from 
Mr. Hackett is a parenthetical appositive in series with 
is more than an England in satiric guize. In the sentence 
from Mr. Chesterton the latter part of the group in curves 
is in series with never criticised. In the following sen- 
tence the series between dashes is in apposition: 

For all these reasons — because he has given a too truthful 
and unpleasant picture of himself, because he is full of the most 
amazing paradoxes, and because it is quite impossible to say 
that all his messages are truly inspired — Rousseau is one of the 
most tantalizing forces in all literature. — P. M. Buck, Jr., 
Social Forces in Modern Literature, p. 59. 

Series may take the form of emphatic repetition, which 
may be climactic. 

It is a fearful thing to lead this great, peaceful people into 
war, into the most terrible and disastrous of all wars, civilization 
itself seeming to be in the balance. — President Wilson, Mes- 
sage to the Congress, April 2, 1917. 

Force, force to the utmost; force without stint or limit; the 
righteous, triumphant force which shall make right the law of 
the world and cast every selfish dominion down in the dust. — 
President Wilson, Baltimore Speech, as cited in the North Amer- 
ican Review, May, 1918. [Differently pointed in other periodi- 
cals.] 



Punctuation of Series 119 

False Appearance of Series 

Distinctive pointing is sometimes required in order to 
prevent a group from appearing to be in series with adja- 
cent groups. In the sentence "The committee consists of 
Dr. Smith, President Lowell (Harvard), and Major 
Briggs," the curves make it clear that Harvard is not co- 
ordinate with the other names. The pointing of the expres- 
sion "Putnam, Little, Brown & Co." conceals the fact that 
the groups are (1) Putnam, (2) Little, Brown & Co. 

A hotel once advertised its golf course in this manner: 
"The 120-acre, 18-hole, golf course is the finest in Amer- 
ica.' ' A theoretical case could be made for the second 
comma, but practically this pointing is awkward because 
it makes golf course appear to be in series with 120-acre 
and 18-hole. 

The Series Points 

The points most often used between elements in series, 
or at either boundary of a series, are the comma and the 
semicolon. Less frequent series points are the dash, some- 
times with comma ; the hyphen, for rapid series amounting 
to word-coinage; very seldom the colon, interrogation, or 
exclamation mark. Sometimes elements are not pointed 
at all, especially when all conjunctions are present. But 
points may be used for distinctness even with a full quota 
of conjunctions. 

Series with and without Pointing 

From series it is necessary to distinguish successive 
expressions not logically coordinate. No comma is needed 
in 6 feet 3 inches in height or in 3 years 4 months old. 



120 Modern Punctuation 

Commas would suggest series, which exists rather in such 
expressions as wood in lengths of 2 feet, 3 feet, and 4 feet. 
Nor is there true series in the expressions old brick house 
or great naval offensive. In these cases the adjectives are 
not coordinate as commas between them would suggest; 
the latter adjective in each case is phrased with the noun. 
Old modifies brick house, and great modifies naval offen- 
sive. 

Sometimes there is true series with neither pointing nor 
conjunctions. Mr. Arnold Bennett's phrase the dashing 
cruel wave that rhymed with save would not be helped by 
pointing. In so rapid a group, pointing would be emphatic 
and unnecessary. 

The presence of conjunctions may obviate series point- 
ing. 

It [a declaration of war] will involve the organization and 
mobilization of all the material resources of the country to sup- 
ply the materials of war and serve the incidental needs of the 
nation in the most abundant and yet the most economical and 
efficient way possible. — President Wilson, Message to the Con- 
gress, April 2, 1917. 

But there may be punctuation for distinctness even in a 
series with all connectives present. 

The Kaiser is perhaps the last of that long series of crowned 
and cloaked and semi-divine personages which has included 
Caesar and Alexander and Napoleon the First — and Third. — 
H. G. Wells, Italy, France and Britain at War, p. 25. 

The following sentence from Mr. G. K. Chesterton's 
Crimes of England (p. 40) has series without pointing 
(soft-hearted and not unfrequently soft-headed) , predicate 
series with conjunction and comma, and series apposition 
with semicolon. 



"Rhetorical Repetition" 121 

Thus in England Puritanism began as the hardest of creeds, 
but has ended as the softest; soft-hearted and not unfrequently 
soft-headed. 



According to Dean Alford's opinion (The Queen's Eng- 
lish, section 193) the unpunctuated form deep deep sea is 
right and the foi?m deep, deep sea absurd. But as a rule 
repetitions for emphasis are made distinct by punctuation. 
The points most often used within the sentence for cases of 
repetition are the comma and the dash. Other points 
properly used at times for repetition within sentence or 
paragraph are period, question and exclamation marks, 
colon, semicolon. 

The following sentences illustrate the use of the dash: 

So soon, however, as he began to concern himself with a wide 
range of human interests, with the relatively permanent rather 
than with the episodic and transient, he perceived that general 
changes are necessarily slow — very slow. — James Harvey Robin- 
son, The New History, p. 155. 

Humor, it is agreed, consists in contrasts and incongruities, 
and the essence of Mark Twain's most characteristic humor con- 
sists in contrasting this typical nimbused American, compacted 
of golden mediocrities, against the world — consists in showing 
the incongruity of the rest of the world with this nimbused 
American. — Stuart P. Sherman, On Contemporary Literature, 
p. 33. 

In the second sentence the dash may be called a mark of 
both series and apposition. 

For " rhetorical repetition" some books specify the dash 
as if it were required. The comma is in fact more frequent, 
but less noticeable because lighter. 

The semicolon is often useful when the members of a 
series are long, and especially when they contain commas. 



122 Modern Punctuation 

If any member of such a series appears too unimportant 
for this pointing, there may be need to lighten the punctua- 
tion of the whole series, with change of wording if neces- 
sary. To write ' ' a committee including Presidents Butler, 
of Columbia; Lowell, of Harvard; and Hadley, of Yale" 
is likely to seem clumsy. It would be better to follow 
the usual newspaper style, "a committee including Pres- 
idents Butler of Columbia, Lowell of Harvard, and Hadley 
of Yale." And the light style "yeas 9, nays 5" is quite 
as clear as the stiffer style "yeas, 9; nays, 5." 

But the semicolon is not necessarily heavy. With 
wording like this it is an unobtrusive aid to rapidity and 
clearness : 

We are glad, now that we see the facts with no veil of false 
pretense about them, to fight thus for the ultimate peace of the 
world and for the liberation of its peoples, the German people 
included; for the rights of nations great and small and the 
privilege of men everywhere to choose their way of life and of 
obedience. — President Wilson, Message to the Congress, April 



The colon in series is anomalous and very infrequent. 
The question mark and the exclamation point as series 
marks are not open to the same theoretical objection; but 
practically they are seldom used except at the end of a 
sentence or quotation. Sometimes the members of a series 
are emphatically set as elliptical sentences, as in this pas- 
sage from a newspaper editorial: 

Not one new bushel of wheat could thereby have been produced. 
Not one ton of steel. Not a pound of cotton. 

But more often series in the paragraph takes the form of 
parallel structure in full sentences. 



The X, Y, and Z Series 123 

Series with One Conjunction 

Regarding the series of three or more distinct coordinate 
members with conjunction between only the last two, as in 
Rheims, Cambrai, and Ypres, there is no uniformity of 
practice. Nearly all textbooks on rhetoric or punctuation 
specify the use of the comma before the conjunction; and 
this style is customarily followed in many periodicals and 
books, especially by writers who are careful of their point- 
ing. The style with comma is also used by some news- 
papers, notably the New York Times and New York Even- 
ing Post. 

On the other hand, most newspapers and some other 
periodicals print such a series with no comma before the 
conjunction. In many offices the comma is seldom allowed 
to stand before the last member of a series, even a series 
made of long groups, unless the members are full clauses. 
So inflexible a rule is a nuisance; but practically it is 
sometimes treated as one of the laws of nature — if the 
meaning stands in the way of the rule, so much the worse 
for the meaning. 

Fortunately most book publishers of importance either 
prefer the comma style or use it according to copy. 

In cases like these the use of a comma before the con- 
junction is a matter not of taste but of clearness : 

In England, no sooner had the war broken out than the 
political leaders — Liberal, Conservative, Unionist, Home Rule, 
and Ulster — threw party politics to the winds. — The Outlook, 
April 10, 1918. 

By the same token will she insist on four nights a week out;, 
cold supper every Sunday, and all the beds — including her own — 
to be made by the family lest she pronounce the work too much 
for one and demand a helper, plus tax, under pain of black- 



124 Modern Punctuation 

listing ours as a "two-girl- job" at all agencies. — New York 
Nation, July 20, 1918. 

In names like Dodd, Mead & Co. the comma is ordinarily 
not used between the last two members. This style is 
justified by long custom. 

The rigid no-comma rule is tyrannical ; the rigid comma 
rule is not regularly, followed even by careful authors. In 
some cases triads are stilted if a comma is used with the 
conjunction, in other cases awkward if the comma is omit- 
ted. Either style leaves opportunity for the exercise of 
judgment. Where the no-comma style is enforced, one 
cannot safely attempt more than the simplest type of series 
with one conjunction. With liberty to use the comma, a 
writer can use a convenient type of structure which other- 
wise would be unsafe. 

Punctuation for Common Dependence 

"Common dependence" might be used of all sentence 
elements except main clauses in series — of adjectives or 
adverbs modifying the same element, of substantives be- 
longing to one verb, of prepositions governing the same 
noun. But the common-dependence problem in punctua- 
tion is practically limited to two cases: modifiers of one 
verb or substantive (appositives being counted as modi- 
fiers), and subjects or objects of one verb. 

In general, a modifying series is not set off from its 
principal element unless a point is required for clearness 
or emphasis. To write a high-spirited, generous, just, 
nation is absurd, because the last comma gives a false sug- 
gestion of series relation between just and nation. In the 
following sentence from a newspaper editorial the comma 
after adroitly is awkward and quite unnecessary to clear- 
ness: 



Comma at End of Series 125 

When he had committed himself to the struggle the Prime 
Minister cleverly, adroitly, accepted the issue and forced his old 
opponent into the position of attacking the government at a 
critical moment in the history of the Empire on trivial cnarges 
made by a disgruntled and partially discredited general. 

The comma might advantageously be transferred to either 
one of two other* places in the sentence. 

In this sentence the comma at the end of the series can- 
not be considered either unnecessary or stilted ; it is in fact 
an aid to rapidity: 

In edge, in delicacy, in proportion, in accuracy of effect, they 
are as marble to our sandstone.- — John Jay Chapman, Atlantic 
Classics, second series, p. 184. 

Common Dependence as Subject or Object of Verb 

Where successive groups are subjects or objects of the 
same verb, the series may be separated from the verb, or 
grouped with it. The rule that there shall always be a 
comma if the clauses follow the verb, or a dash if they 
precede, is obsolete. The rigid application of such a rule 
has effects like this: 

Philosophers assert, that Nature is unlimited in her opera- 
tions; that she has inexhaustible treasures in reserve; that 
knowledge will always be progressive. — From a manual of 
punctuation. 

The following sentences illustrate the modern practice 
in common-dependence pointing : 

The character of the binding, the color of it, the style of type 
used on the cover should all be taken into account and should 
bear some relation to the character of the book. — J. M. Manly 
and J. A. Powell, A Manual for Writers, p. 204. 



126 Modern Punctuation 

When we were thrilled to read how superbly those hundreds 
died, in the great English way, a man pointed out that they did 
indeed die in the English way, and that our pride was therefore 
ill-timed; that all that bravery was wasted; that the tragedy 
was in the shipwreck of intelligence. — John Erskine, The Moral 
Obligation to Be Intelligent, p. 21. 

They now almost cynically admit that the resolution of the 
Reichstag, of which we have heard so much, all the talk of no 
annexations and indemnities, of considering the wishes of sub- 
ject populations, of spreading the principles of security and 
freedom throughout the world, was what we sometimes call 
camouflage. — From an address by A. J. Balfour, as reported in 
a New York newspaper. 

There is no point after admit, and only a comma separat- 
ing was from its series subject. 

A series of appositives depending on a word like sup- 
position or belief is like a series depending on a verb : 

Here is the casual assumption that a choice must be made 
between goodness and intelligence; that stupidity is first cousin 
to moral conduct, and cleverness the first step into mischief; 
that reason and God are not good terms with each other; that 
the mind and the heart are rival buckets in the well of truth, 
inexorably balanced — full mind, starved heart — stout heart, weak 
head. — John Erskine, The Moral Obligation to Be Intelligent, 
p. 5f. 

Where pointing is needed for a parenthesis at the end of 
a series, the second parenthetical point will indicate the 
relation of the series. 

Neither the English, the Russians, the Italians nor the French, 
to name only the bigger European allies, are concerned in set- 
ting up a legend, as the Germans are concerned in setting up a 
legend of themselves to impose upon mankind. — H. G. Wells, 
Italy, France and Britain at War, p. 3, 



Groups in Common Dependence 127 

Summation at the end of a series subject by means of an 
expression like these can usually be managed with the dash 
or comma with dash. In the following case the dash car- 
ries a supernumerary comma. 

The winning or losing of a bit of territory by a Louis or a 
Frederick, the laborious piecing together of a puny duchy des- 
tined to speedy disintegration upon the downfall of a Caesar 
Borgia, struggles between rival dynasties, the ambitions of 
young kings' uncles, the turning of an enemy's flank a thousand 
years ago, — have not such things been given an unmerited promi- 
nence? — James Harvey Robinson, The New History, p. 8f. 

The dash is appropriate because there is a shift of struc- 
ture. 

That clauses in common dependence shall be separated 
by semicolons is a traditional rule which writers freely and 
properly disregard. The following sentence, from a punc- 
tuation manual, is too heavily pointed: 

The loss of home and business; the disruption of friendly and 
social ties; the death of friends and kindred; the endurance of 
poverty and want, — these are a few of the miseries which war 
brings to many or all of the inhabitants of the regions deso- 
lated by this scourge. 

Commas would be lighter and quite sufficient to clear 
grouping. The comma with the dash is unnecessary. 

As in some of the examples above, semicolons are often 
used between groups in common relation to a verb. Under 
other circumstances, as in this sentence, commas are suffi- 
cient : 

They are rejected for the ideals of power, for the principle 
that the strong must rule the weak, that trade must follow the 
flag, whether those to whom it is taken welcome it or not, that 



128 Modem Punctuation 

the peoples of the world are to be made subject to the patronage 
and overlordship of those who have the power to enforce it. — 
From an address by President Wilson as reported in a news- 
paper. 



Suspended Series 

A series may be suspended, with or without pointing, 
by the use of such correlative pairs as not and but, not 
only and but (or but also), first and then, rather and than, 
than and as. In correlative series managed without point- 
ing the second member may be felt as a restrictive modifier. 
With regard to the pointing of suspended series there is 
no safe general rule. With not and but, for example, there 
may be no point, one point, or two points. 

We still forget that they come not to see but to invent us. — 
F. M. Colby, Constrained Attitudes, p. 204. 

Our pacifism (even more than that of the British) was the 
pacifism of sentimentality and materialistic languor. It was an 
outcropping not of socialist propaganda, but of morbid op- 
timism. — New York Tribune (editorial), April 3, 1918. 

It will be all the easier for us to conduct ourselves as bel- 
ligerents in a high spirit of right and fairness because we act 
without animus, not in enmity toward a people or with the desire 
to bring any injury or disadvantage upon them, but only in 
armed opposition to an irresponsible Government which has 
thrown aside all considerations of humanity and of right and is 
running amuck. — President Wilson, Message to the Congress, 
April 2, 1917. 

The length and weight of the parts are circumstances 
to be considered, but not the only circumstances. Point- 
ing for distinctness may be desirable even when the mem- 
bers of the series are short. 



Suspended Series 129 

It is from the design, rather than the wording, that the first 
impressions are gained. — F. J. Trezise, The Typography of Ad- 
vertisements, Preface. 

A series may be suspended by a parenthesis : 

On Comte's effort to erect a new polity and a new religion, with 
himself as its high priest and pontiff, nobody has brought to 
bear, I will not say merely so much hostile criticism, but such 
downright indignation, as Mr. Mill. — John Morley, Critical Mis- 
cellanies, vol. IV, p. 111. 

In pedantic usage, however, there is a certain, though for- 
tunately but a slight, degree of danger. — Thomas R. Lounsbury, 
The Standard of Usage in English, p. 164. 

The pointing of the sentence from Mr. Lounsbury suspends 
attention too emphatically upon certain and slight. 



Suspended Particles 

Punctuated suspended groups ending with prepositions 
or conjunctions are still used, but seldom with good effect. 
This device is at once illustrated and characterized by a 
sentence cited by Mr. J. F. Genung in his Practical Ele- 
ments of Rhetoric- 
Elegance prohibits an arrangement that throws the emphasis 
on, and thus causes a suspension of the sense at, a particle 
or other unimportant word. 

All that can be managed by this venerable artifice can be 
better managed otherwise, as in this sentence from one 
of President Wilson's messages to Congress: 

Indeed, it is now evident . . . that the intrigues which have 
more than once come perilously near to disturbing the peace and 



130 Modern Punctuation 

dislocating the industries of the country have been carried on 
at the instigation, with the support, and even under the personal 
direction, of official agents of the Imperial German Government 
accredited to the Government of the United States. 



Disguised Series 

For the sake of lightness or informality the series rela- 
tion is often concealed. In the following sentences series 
is managed unobtrusively with if, though, and as. 

Bute was the figurehead of a group of Tories who set about 
fulfilling the fine if fanciful scheme for a democratic monarchy 
sketched by Bolingbroke in "The Patriot King."— G. K. Ches- 
terton, The Crimes of England, p. 36. 

Macaulay's world-wide generalization is very true though very 
Macaulayese. — lb., p. 34. 

The failure of our intellectuals to visualize this alarming 
situation and to send out a warning in time to meet it with ade- 
quate preparation will ever remain one of the most amazing, as it 
is one of the most tragic, of all the facts connected with this ter- 
rible war. — W. H. Hobbs, in the New York Tribune, April 16, 
1918. 

Correlation with both and and, or as and as, may be con- 
sidered a disguised form of series. The second member of 
such a series may have the effect of a restrictive modifier. 
The following sentences are from the New York Tribune 
(April 16, 1918) : 

He was as cynical as they were in exacting all that it was 
thought worth while to exact from Russia and Rumania. 

There was undoubtedly a time, however, when both Czernin 
and the young Emperor were almost as eager to purchase peace 
as Lenine and Trotzky later showed themselves to be. 



Special Grouping 131 

In the following sentence the correlatives not alone and 
but imply a sort of restrictive relation, but there is punc- 
tuation for the sake of distinct grouping: 

Print depends for its proper effect not alone upon the type 
of face selected, but also upon its size; not alone upon the type 
itself, but also upon its spacing, its arrangement, its combina- 
tion with other types. — Benjamin Sherbow, Making Type Work, 
p. 1. 



II. Pointing for Special Grouping, Suspension, or 
Special Emphasis 

As any structural point may be called suspensive, the 
matter of this section must be narrowly limited. Other- 
wise there would be need to repeat much from the sec- 
tions on paragraph and sentence pointing, the pointing 
of main clauses, and so on through preliminaries, par- 
entheses, afterthoughts, and series. Suspension is there- 
fore arbitrarily limited in this section to the sentence, and 
to cases where pointing is not called for by the require- 
ments of series, parenthetical structure, or the grouping 
of modifiers. Cases of suspension, so limited, include (1) 
interruption not at structural division lines, (2) sudden 
turn of structure, (3) suspension by the hyphen. Inter- 
ruption pointing includes the separation of subject from 
verb, of object from verb or preposition, of complement 
from verb, and of a grammatical connective from the fol- 
lowing link of a series. 

The characteristic suspension point in ordinary use is 
the dash; suspension periods are not entirely naturalized, 
commas not always distinct or strong enough. Where 
suspension occurs after a formal introductory group the 
customary point is the colon, with the dash as an occasional 



132 Modern Punctuation 

alternative. The use of the hyphen for suspension is in- 
frequent. 



1. Interruption Pointing 

Interruption may take place at any part of the sentence, 
as between verb and object, between preposition and object, 
or after a connective like hut. 

Then he opens his palm, disclosing — a latchkey! — Walter 
Prichard Eaton, The American Stage of To-day, p. 36. 

Those present were: Messrs. Rea, Collins, Pinckney, and 
Little. 

The fact is, I never heard of him until ten minutes ago. 

The colon in the second sentence is excessively formal. 
The comma in the third sentence groups the first three 
words as being preliminary rather than structural. A 
somewhat different case occurs in the following sentence, 
the third comma making the succeeding words a suspended 
complement : 

Here, as always in translating, the one safe rule is, com- 
promise, — and in this the instinct of the born translator is re- 
vealed. — F. T. Cooper, The Craftsmanship of Writing, p. 265. 

The use of suspension periods was once satirized in this 
fashion by Mr. Don Marquis in the New York Evening 
Sun: 

Whenever you see . . . three little dots . . . such as 
these ... in the stuff of a modern versifier . . . even in 
our stuff ... it means that the writer ... is trying to sug- 
gest something rather . . . well, elusive, if you get what we 
mean . . . and the reason he suggests it instead of expressing 



The "Long Subject" 133 

it . . . is . . . very often . . . because it is an almost idea 
. . . instead of a real idea. . . 

But since suspension periods are used by many writers 
of high standing, they are not subject to any general con- 
demnation. 



The "Long Subject" with Comma 

According to an evil tradition the comma is used — 
"required" is sometimes the word — between a long subject 
and its verb, or after any subject ending with a finite verb. 

This pointing occurs now and then even in newspapers, 
which are usually economical though not always careful. 

As a rule the long-subject comma is awkward. Points 
setting off a parenthesis intervening between subject and 
verb are a means of bridging a gap in the structure ; simi- 
larly a point at the end of a series may be a normal and 
convenient means of clearness. But a point which does 
nothing but intervene between elements usually grouped 
together is anomalous and contrary to careful present 
usage. Structure which, requires the long-subject comma 
for clearness is usually bad structure. 

What was, was. — Arnold Bennett, These Twain, p. 371. 

If we recognize that whatever is in usage is right, we must 
be prepared to go a step further and concede that whatever was 
was right. — Thomas R. Lounsbury, The Standard of Usage in 
English, p. 100. 

The first sentence is according to the traditional rule. 
The second, with no comma before the second was, is clear 
and quite in accordance with modern practice. In the 
following sentence there is a long subject with two commas, 
but without punctuation at the end: 



134 Modern Punctuation 

The very fact that the same word, romantic, is used to desig- 
nate the wonder of the infinite and the wonder of the limitless 
shows how easily we merge together these extreme opposites. — 
Paul Elmer More, The Drift of Romanticism, p. 233. 

2. Shift of Structure 

Where the structure of the sentence is broken short or 
suddenly changed, the usual punctuation mark is the dash. 

To let one's self go — that is what art is always aiming at. — 
J. E. Spingarn, Creative Criticism, p. 120. 

"Whether it will be followed by a second offensive of equal 
magnitude, or whether a counter-offensive will drive back the 
Germans, or whether they will "dig in" where they are and main- 
tain their lines — these are questions which it is not possible to 
answer as we write. — The Outlook, April 10, 1918. 

Both of these shifts of structure are technically cases of 
apposition. So also are the following, which are managed 
with comma and colon: 

To have sensations in the presence of a work of art and to 
express them, that is the function of Criticism for the impres- 
sionistic critic. — J. E. Spingarn, Creative Criticism, p. 5. 

Life everlasting, eternity, forever and ever: these are tre- 
mendous words for even a grown person to face; and for a child 
— if he grasp their significance at all — they may be hardly short 
of appalling. — Margaret P. Montague, Twenty Minutes of 
Reality, p. If. 

As apposition points the colon and the comma are ap- 
propriate; but in practice the customary mark of a shift 
even with appositive construction is the dash. 

3. Suspension with the Hyphen 

The hyphen is sometimes used, especially in fiction, to 
indicate hesitation. 



Hyphen Suspension. Ellipsis 135 

At the end of the cell scene [in Justice] the younger, who 
stammers, turned to his elder and said: "It's n-not so — j-j — oily 
as all that!" — John Galsworthy, A Sheaf, p. 161. 

The hyphen is also employed to utilize the second part 
of a compound word for two compounds, as in the expres- 
sion out of eye- and ear-shot of the master or interrogation.- 
and exclamation marks. This stilted construction, pre- 
sumably borrowed from Germany, is seldom used in good 
non-technical writing. But in a sentence like this, hyphen 
suspension is convenient: 

Open leaders [periods or dots] run one dot to the em, and 
are cast on one-, two- and three-em units. Close leaders are 
cast on en, em, and two- and three-em units, and are some- 
times used as a substitute for dotted rule. — Frank S. Henry, 
Printing for School and Shop, p. 293. 



III. Ellipsis Pointing 

As the pointing of ellipsis in quotations will be treated 
in Chapter VII, the present section is concerned only with 
the indication of omissions from original matter. And 
since the marks which indicate omission from a word are 
partly treated under etymological pointing, the matter of 
this section is reduced to small dimensions. 

"Ellipsis" need not be strained to include the omission 
of the subject from the imperative sentence, or the old- 
fashioned splitting of particles ("he came to, and was 
induced to remain in, our community"), or the everyday 
use of clipped sentences, or the omission of the relative 
from such an expression as a man I once saw in New York. 
It is a rash, assumption to say that an element has been 
"omitted." The fact is merely that the ordinary full 
sentence would have the element expressed. Sentence 



136 Modern Punctuation 

words and phrases, omitting subject or verb or both, are) 
frequent and normal. 

Ellipsis for Concealment 

The customary mark for an omission dictated by actual 
or assumed desire for concealment is the dash, which may 
be of the ordinary em length or longer. The style book 
of the Chicago Daily News, for example, has this rule: 
"Insert dashes of suitable length in 'swear words' or, if 
the copy has the whole word blanked, follow copy." 
Damn and its derivatives may be concealed, like the key 
under the door-mat, by the form d — d rascal, Tie said he 

didn't care a , and the like. The name Mr. Brown 

may be masked under the forms Mr. B , Mr. , 

or Mr. B n. Much less often asterisks or periods are 

used to indicate the omission of letters, in which case the 
number of marks will suggest even if it does not represent 
an equal number of omitted letters. 

Ellipsis or Grouping with the Comma 

The use of the comma for what is traditionally supposed 
to be ellipsis of the verb occurs in cases of the following 
sort. The doctrine contained in the sentence from Goold 
Brown is of course obsolete. 

The Comma denotes the shortest pause; the Semicolon, a 
pause double that of the comma; the Colon, a pause double that 
of the semicolon; and the period, or Full Stop, a pause double 
that of the colon. — Goold Brown, The Grammar of English 
Grammars (second edition, 1858), p. 772. 

Kindness secures cooperation; harshness, opposition. — Ex- 
ample from a manual of punctuation. 

Better the light-hearted unconcern of Mr. John Richard Green, 
the historian, who, albeit a. clergyman of the Church of England, 



Ellipsis of the Verb 137 

preferred going to the Church of Rome when Catholicism had an 
organ, and Protestantism, a harmonium. — Agnes Repplier, 
Americans and Others, p. 128. 

It is clear that verbs are omitted — in the sense of not being 
used — at certain places marked by commas; but whether 
these sentences are well punctuated is another matter. The 
pointing of the first is formal, but not otherwise objection- 
able. The second sentence is hopeless in both structure 
and pointing. The third is a good sentence marred by 
clumsy pointing near the end. 

The tradition that ellipsis of the verb requires pointing 
cannot endure examination. Suppression of the verb has 
been common a long time, is in fact an ordinary means of 
economy and rapidity. Where the structure is clear, omis- 
sion of the verb needs no marking. 

But the fact is that Homer floats in the central stream of 
history, Shakespeare in an eddy. — John Jay Chapman, Atlantic 
Classics, second series, p. 184. 

The fundamental fact is that for him Scots was the natural 
language of the emotions, English of the intellect. — W. A. Neil- 
son, Burns: How to Know Him, p. 73. 

If these sentences were pointed according to the traditional 
style ("Homer was the greater genius; Virgil, the greater 
artist"), they would become unwieldy without the slightest 
gain in clearness. 

If a verb ought to be omitted, the omission can always 
be managed without a device so clumsy as the ellipsis 
comma. As a rule, a comma standing for an omitted 
verb will defeat the very purpose of the omission. 

The Grouping of Names and Figures 

In such expressions as Nashville, Tennessee and April 
7, 1918 the comma indicates grouping rather than ellipsis. 



138 Modern Punctuation 

Tennessee and 1918 are limiting elements set off for clear- 
ness. 

In the date style May 7, 1915 the comma is useful ; in the 
style 7 May 1915, recommended by so eminent an authority 
as Sir James Murray, there is no need of a comma, because 
the figures are not adjacent ; nor is there any fundamental 
reason why the expression in August 1914 should take a 
comma or two commas. In a sentence like this the two 
commas are distinctly inconvenient : 

In April, 1918, the United States entered the great war. 

But custom is so obstinate that the two commas are usually 
considered necessary. In this as in certain other matters 
of punctuation British writers are less conservative. 

If an address like Albany, New York is written in two 
lines on an envelope, there is no need of a comma. Group- 
ing by pointing or white space is called for not by ellipsis 
but by requirements of clearness. 



CHAPTER VII 

QUOTATION, ETYMOLOGICAL, AND REFERENCE 
POINTING 

With a Note on Capitals and Italic 

The punctuation marks treated in this chapter are more 
subject to legislation for uniformity than comma, semi- 
colon, dash, curves, or the sentence points. Questions of 
structural pointing are questions of art which cannot be 
settled by general or even minute prescription. The uses 
of quote marks, hyphens, the apostrophe, and the abbrevi- 
ation point also involve questions of rhetorical art, but in 
a less degree. There must be certain definite rules or there 
can be no good printing. 

But the present chapter is not a compendium of rules. 
Its purpose is only to point out the more usual customs, 
with the rhetorical considerations applicable to whatever 
set of styles one may happen to follow. 

I. The Pointing op Quotations 

Quotation points properly include not only the double 
and single quotation marks but also marks of omission or 
interpolation, and points used with words introducing or 
interrupting quotations. 

The printer's double quote marks are usually two 
inverted commas and two apostrophes, or equivalent 
logotypes, single quotes being one inverted comma and one 

139 



140 Modern Punctuation 

apostrophe. Typewriter quotes are usually the same in 
form for both the beginning and the end of a quotation. 
All of these will be called quote marks or quotes. 

Save for a quotation within a quotation, most American 
printers use double quotes for both citation and special 
designation. But there are exceptions. The Atlantic 
Monthly and some book publishers employ single quotes 
for both citation and special designation, reserving double 
quotes for secondary quotation. Certain other publications 
differentiate the two kinds of quoted expressions by using 
double quotes for ordinary citation (with single quotes for 
secondary quotation) and single quotes for slang, words 
as words, terms with special meaning, and some other 
expressions not specifically quoted. The distinction be- 
tween citation and special designation is convenient in 
many ways and appears to be growing in favor. 

Quote marks are used to indicate direct borrowing of 
phraseology or to designate an expression as being special, 
peculiar, or of such nature that the writer using it wishes 
to rid himself of responsibility. Indirect quotation, as in 
the sentence He promised that he would come, is not occa- 
sion for the use of quote marks ; but as a matter of course 
an expression in another's words may be embedded in the 
indirect quotation, and accordingly credited. 

Mr. Lounsbury maintained the opinion that "no rules of verbal 
criticism are worthy of consideration unless they are supported 
by the concurrent usage of the best writers." 

As quote marks imply that some one is being correctly 
cited, the borrower should keep the phraseology unchanged 
and continuous, or give clear indication to the contrary. 
It is improper to italicize any part of a quoted passage with- 
out notice of the fact, or to make any change in pointing or 
capitals that would misrepresent the meaning. The change 



Problems in Citation 141 

of a hyphened to a solid word or of double to single quotes 
may be permissible ; not so the substitution of exclamations 
or admiring capitals. Every ellipsis or interpolation should 
be indicated except where the quotation is confessedly a 
mosaic. Otherwise the quotation is unfair. 

One duty easily forgotten when the writer is in a hurry 
is to insert the terminal quote mark. The reader should 
know where a citation ends. 



Quotes and White Space 

In the use of quotations there are problems not merely 
of honesty but of design and style. Quote marks are often 
inconvenient with respect to movement, tone, and the looks 
of the page. 

The objection to the usual form of printing office double 
quotes — an objection applying only in part to quotes writ- 
ten with the typewriter — is thus stated by Mr. De Vinne: 

When English printers did decide to mark quotations, they 
refused the French form, and made a very awkward substitute 
by inverting two commas for the beginning and using two apos- 
trophes for the ending of the quotation. The quote marks so 
substituted " " are what Moxon calls a makeshift de\ice, for 
these signs, wrested from their first purpose, are not symmetrical 
mates : the apostrophe on the five-to-em body is made thinner than 
the comma on the four-to-em body, and their knobby endings are 
not in true line. Unlike other characters in the font, they occupy 
the upper part of the body, and leave an unsightly blank below, 
often to the detriment of even spacing. — Correct Composition, 
p. 209f. 

Mr. De Vinne says elsewhere that "the French method 
of using a distinct reversible sign for quotation, which is 
put in the middle of the face, is preferable in every way. ' ' 



142 Modern Punctuation 

In some modern fonts a special beginning quote is made, 
with the knobs in line ; but the white-space gaps remain. 



Quotes and Style 

Quotation is attended with certain dangers. There is 
the risk of seeming pedantic or self-conscious, of emphasiz- 
ing unduly the form of words, of making a patchwork out 
of matter which ought to be original. 

Self-quotation may seem lazy or self-satisfied. Unless 
there is clear reason for citing the exact words one has used 
on a former occasion, it is usually best to cite in substance. 
When quotation marks call attention to one's own verbal 
felicity, they exhibit bad taste almost more glaringly than 
any other device of punctuation. 

His "discourteous courtesy," as I once called it, made his pres- 
ence unwelcome. 

Even when quote marks are not self-conscious, they may 
be open to objection because too emphatic. Whatever the 
writer's intention, quote marks emphasize whatever they 
enclose. As the marks with their white-space gaps catch 
the eye, they effect a sort of grouping that suggests struc- 
tural division. 

According to Mr. More's opinion, Pater was not in any "proper 
sense a critic." 

The quote mark intervenes awkwardly between parts of 
the close group in any proper sense. 

The consideration of emphasis may suggest the advis- 
ability of quoting in substance rather than directly. 

He said, "I cannot possibly agree to your terms." 
He said he could not possibly agree to my terms. 



Awkward Quote Marks 143 

The first form may happen to be too emphatic. But if 
the exact wording is important, direct quotation is in order. 
The consideration of emphasis applies, as a matter of 
course, to quote marks used for special designation. 

Mrs. Stowe wrote "Uncle Tom's Cabin" while "keeping house" 
in Brunswick, Maine, where her husband was a Bowdoin College 
professor. — D. C. Seitz, Training for the Newspaper Trade, 
p. 30. 

In American affairs to-day the editor does not "commune" 
with "leaders." — lb., p. 55. 

The unnecessary quotes enclosing the phrases keeping 
house, commune, and leaders give them extravagant and 
apparently self-conscious emphasis. 

The danger of using quote marks unadvisedly was once 
illustrated by the formula under which a country dentist 
advertised himself: John Doe, "Dentist." 



Omission of Quote Marks 

Under some circumstances quote marks may be or should 
be omitted as unnecessary, unsightly, or too emphatic. 
The following are the principal cases in which the use of 
quote marks for citatiofTor for special designation is either 
unnecessary or wrong: 

1. When the expression is common property. Mr. De 
Vinne says: " There are phrases in the Bible, in Shake- 
spere, Milton, and other famous authors, which by their 
terseness have become what may be called verbal coins in 
the English language, and their origin and value should be 
known to every reader. To fence in with quote-marks 
phrases like these — not of an age, but for all time; the 
knell of parting day; the observed of all observers; to the 
manner born — implies on the part of the author a low esti- 



144 Modern Punctuation 

mate of the reader's knowledge of literature. . . . This 
remark may be applied to all trite proverbs and hackneyed 
sayings, which do not need quote-marks any more than they 
need foot-notes citing author, book, and page." The pre- 
cise line between individual and common property in 
language cannot be specified, except that one should label 
as a quotation any borrowed wording which could possibly 
be taken as original. 

An exception to the practice of dispensing with quote 
marks may be made in the case even of the most familiar 
sayings when the precise form of words is important. 

2. When the context gives adequate credit. But this 
is only a ' ' may, ' ' not a ' ' must. ' ' If quote marks are needed 
to show the precise limits of the quotation, or needed for 
emphasis, designation by wording is insufficient. As a 
matter of fact the majority of quoted passage:: acknow- 
ledged with quote marks are also credited in words. 

She did not precisely burn with that hard, gemlike flame which 
Mr. Pater recommended. — Simeon Strunsky, Post-Impressions, 
p. 121. 

It will not always do to say with Shakespeare that comparisons 
are "odorous." There is danger of being taken for an ignoramus. 

To enclose hard, gemlike flame in quote marks would give 
it extravagant and pedantic emphasis. In the second pas- 
sage the word odorous is enclosed in quotes for special dis- 
tinctness. 

3. When the expression is a quotation only in form. 

He said to himself, Now I am in for it. 

As the Governor of North Carolina said to the Governor of 
South Carolina, it's a long time between drinks. 

In short, ... the rule should be: Nature manipulated only 
to discover its best values, and make it tractable. — T. H. Dickin- 
son, The Case of American Drama, p: 139. 



Citation without Quotes 145 

4. When the boundaries of the quotation are made clear 
by change of type face, shortening of lines, or other mechan- 
ical means. A "run-in" quotation (one which does not 
begin a new paragraph) need not be in quotes if set in 
italic or bold-face. Nor is there need to use quote marks 
for reduced-type extracts set as separate paragraphs, unless 
in series without v clear indication of their origin and dis- 
continuity. 

There is no general agreement regarding choice between 
the run-in style with quotes and the reduced-type style, 
except that short quotations and quotations of less than a 
sentence, however long, are commonly run in. But excep- 
tions are made for the sake of emphasis. 

In some publications reduced-type extracts are regularly 
enclosed in quote marks, the marks being used according 
to a conservative office style, not because needed for clear- 
ness. If there is merely a change from leaded to solid type 
of the same size, without a shortening of lines, there is 
more reason for the use of quote marks than in the usual 
reduced-type style. 

In the reports of debates and the like, the occurrence of 
the speaker's name or of Q. and A. (for Question and 
Answer) before each part of the dialogue will make quote 
marks unnecessary. 

The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mr. Gallinger in the chair). 
Shall the bill pass? 
Mr. CULLOM. I ask for the yeas and nays. 

This is the Congressional Record style followed by the 
Government Printing Office. The following, cited verbatim 
from the style book of the Chicago Daily N&ws (1908), 
illustrates another way of setting question and answer 
dialogue, this time with quotes: 

Q.— "Who struck Billy Patterson ?" A.— "Congressman Hitt." 



146 Modern Punctuation 

The style recommended in Mr. G. M. Hyde's Newspaper 
Editing is this: 

Q. — 'What is your name? A. — Oscar Brown. 



Quote Marks for Special Designation 

Quote marks are often used for expressions which it 
would be inaccurate to call quotations. Among these are 
nicknames, misnomers, slang phrases, technical and unusual 
phrases; translations or paraphrases; names of ships and 
rarely of buildings ; titles of books, periodicals, poems, and 
works of musical or plastic art; and expressions used with 
satirical intent, the quote marks meaning "so-called." 
When so-called or its equivalent is expressed, quotes are 
either used or omitted according to circumstances. 

A rule that quote marks must be used in these cases or in 
any one of them would be misleading, save as an office 
rule. In the first place, an expression once designated as 
slang, once defined, or once designated as a nickname, may 
thereafter be treated as an ordinary expression. 

One cannot plan a life in conventions without cutting out of it 
many wayward desires and "beautiful impulses." The young 
lions and lionesses of radicalism are forcing the question upon 
us whether one can plan a life in beautiful impulses and wayward 
desires without cutting out the plan. — Stuart P. Sherman, On 
Contemporary Literature, p. 119. 

The repetition of quote marks when the phrase beautiful 
impulses occurs a second time would be unfortunate. 
Under other circumstances the repetition of quote marks 
may be desirable. 

Again, there is much latitude of choice between quote 
marks and italic. In many publishing houses book titles 
are set in italic instead of being quoted ; and in some publi- 



Special Des-ignuiio-in 147 

cations titles are set ' ' roman open, ' ' with neither italic nor 
quotes. Names of ships are italicized by some publishers, 
quoted by others, and by others set roman open. Foreign 
phrases not naturalized or familiar are ordinarily italicized ; 
but foreign extracts exceeding a few words in length may 
be treated as if English. 

For cases subject to legislation, such as the setting of 
book titles, it is well to follow a single style book. Where 
one has choice of styles, the consideration of emphasis will 
often be decisive. 

In the naming of words as words the options are quote 
marks (double or single), italic or other distinctive type, 
initial capital or capitals, and "roman lower-case open." 

Crazy (literally 'cracked') and insane ('unsound') were at 
first milder terms for mad, but they now carry the full force of 
the idea in question. — J. B. Greenough and G. L. Kittredge, 
Words and Their Ways in English Speech, p. 307. 

To the ordinary American the Monroe Doctrine carries with it 
a certain authority and sanctity. It comes from the word "doc- 
trine," which he associates with religion rather than with politics. 
A doctrine is something to be believed, and publicly professed. — 
S. M. Crothers, The Pleasures of an Absentee Landlord, p. 154. 

In his writings as in his talk, he was not afraid to be seen for 
what he actually was; and just as, when asked how he came to 
explain the word Pastern as meaning the knee of a horse, he 
replied at once, "Ignorance, madam, pure ignorance," so in his 
books he made no attempt to be thought wiser or more learned 
than he was. — John Bailey, Br. Johnson and His Circle, p. 32. 

The dashing cruel wave that rhymed with save appeared to me 
intensely realistic. — Arnold Bennett, The Truth about an Author, 
p. 13. 

The preparation for the Protestant Reformation was twofold, 
and may be summed up in the words mysticism and humanism. — 
J. G. Robertson, Outlines of the History of German Literature, 
p. 67. 



148 Modern Punctuation 

The lightest style, roman open without capital, is depend- 
ent on the context. So also, though in less degree, is the 
roman open style with capital, as in the sentence from Mr. 
Bailey. The choice of style is a matter of taste and of cir- 
cumstances. In books about words, for example, the italic 
style is convenient. 

Literary Titles 

In the designation of literary titles a distinction is some- 
times made between the names of books and on the other 
hand titles of lectures, unpublished works, sections, chap- 
ters, magazine articles, and short poems. In the nature of 
the case this distinction is sometimes difficult to make. For 
one thing, "short" is indefinite. 

Some titles need not be designated by either quotes or 
italic, whatever style is used for other titles. It is not 
good form to quote or italicize the names Bible or Psalms, 
and there is no need to designate by anything more than 
capitals such titles as the Gettysburg Address, the Iliad, 
the New English Dictionary, the Oxford English Texts, 
the Introduction, the Preface, or chapter names in a series 
of more than three or four. As Mr. De Vinne has pointed 
out, capitalization is enough to make the titles distinct with- 
out the aid of quote marks, and without their awkwardness. 
Of the following styles the second is in agreement with his 
recommendation : 

The chapters are as follows: "Some Words to Professor Whirl- 
wind," "The Protestant Hero," "The Enigma of Waterloo," "The 
Coming of the Janissaries," "The Lost England," "Hamlet and 
the Danes," "The Midnight of Europe," "The Wrong- Horse," 
"The Awakening of England," and "The Battle of the Marne." 

The chapters are as follows : Some Words to Professor Whirl- 
wind, The Protestant Hero, The Enigma of Waterloo, The Com- 



Title Styles 149 

ing of the Janissaries, The Lost England, Hamlet and the Danes, 
The Midnight of Europe, The Wrong Horse, The Awakening 
of England, and The Battle of the Marne. 

Mr. De Vinne's opinion is significant as being that of 
a conservative and practical printer who was also a man 
of learning. His chapter on quotation marks in Correct 
Composition (pp. 209-229) is of great value, and not to 
printers alone. 

When writing for publication, one may save bad effects by 
composing with reference to the styles of the publisher. 
The following sentences are clumsy because italic type in 
the one case and quotes in the other are used for two pur- 
poses in each case. 

The expressions our mutual friend and the two first receive 
mention in The Standard of Usage in English Speech. 

For the terms "suppression of clauses/' "decrease of predi- 
cation," and "weight of styles" see Mr. L. A. Sherman's "Ana- 
lytics of Literature." 

Where one may choose freely among the different title 
styles, the consideration of economy both of time and money 
is in favor of the open style, the quote style being second 
best. This is true of both typography and typewriting. 
The open style appears to be growing in favor. 

Whether to include the articles (the, an, a) in quoted 
or italicized titles is in part a matter of taste. The. works 
with the full titles A History of American Literature and 
The Social Contract may be cited in either quote or italic 
style with the articles omitted altogether. If the precise 
form of the title matters, the article should be included. 

For an accouni of the Knickerbocker writers, see chapter III 
of Mr. W. B. Cairns's History of American Literature. 

Rousseau's Social Contract was profoundly influential through- 
out Europe. 



150 Modern Punctuation 

To write "Rousseau's The Social Contract was profoundly 
influential" would be unnecessarily clumsy. 

In case the article is expressed, it may be included within 
the italic or quotes if exact citation is necessary, but often 
need not be. One may properly write l ' the publication of 
the Social Contract in 1762" or "the moderate views that 
Montesquieu expressed in the Spirit of the Laws." To 
italicize or quote the article often gives it unnecessary 
weight. 

When book titles are written roman open, the initial 
article is capitalized if exact citation is desirable, but other- 
wise need not be. When titles of periodicals are cited 
the article the is customarily left outside the boundaries 
of the italicized or quoted groups. If the roman open style 
is used, the article need not take a capital. 

I saw it in the Sun. 

The essay originally appeared in the "Unpopular Review." 
Mr. Irvin Cobb's "Wanted : a Foolproof War" was written for 
the Saturday Evening Post. 

There are exceptions as a matter of course. Lord North- 
cliffe's most important newspaper prefers to be known 
as The Times or "The Times" ; and a Philadelphia periodi- 
cal refers to itself in its own columns as The Saturday 
Evening Post. The New York Globe writes "the New 
Republic is a poor prophet," but "Readers of The Globe 
will confer a favor if, etc. ' ' 



Secondary Quotations 

Where double quotes are the ordinary marks, as in most 
American-printed works, a secondary quotation (one ex- 
tract within another) is enclosed in single quotes. But 
if the single marks are used for primary quotations, as in 



Quotation within Quotation 151 

the Atlantic Monthly, secondary quotations are enclosed 
in double quotes. A tertiary quotation, if the writer is 
ingenious enough to make use of such a thing and if he can 
count on his reader to thread the labyrinth, will be enclosed 
in the marks used for primary quotations. 

Mr. Crothers says of them: "They disputed with one another 
for the sheer joy of intellectual conflict. The disputations sharp- 
ened their wits, but they 'got no results.' n 

"The orator then proceeded: 'The dictionary tells us that 
"the words, 'freedom' and 'liberty/ though often interchanged, 
are distinct in some of their applications." ' " — Example given 
by the Manual of Style of the University of Chicago Press. 

The first passage has an ordinary quotation within a quota- 
tion. The second illustrates a case which printers have now 
and then to handle, though hardly for their own pleasure. 
If a secondary quotation occurs within a reduced-type 
extract not enclosed in quotes, primary quote marks arc 
used. 

The cry for "sustained effort," later ridiculed by Poe, probably 
came from the feeling that nothing but writings on a great scale 
could adequately represent a great country. — W. B. Cairns, 
History of American Literature, p. 159. 



The Repetition of Quote Marks 

In a continuous extract of two or more paragraphs with 
which quote marks are used, it is customary to repeat the 
marks at the beginning of each paragraph and at the end 
of the last. 

The emphatic fashion of using quote marks at the begin- 
ning of each line of a run-in extract is no longer common 
in books, though used by some newspapers. 



152 Modern Punctuation 

The Kaiser means that it shall stick uncomfortably in the 
French memory, and that when his next peace offer comes France 
will still remember it. There is also a threat in it: "If you 
"reject my next peace offer as you did that of 1916, the same 
"thing that befell the Marne region will befall other regions." 
The Kaiser is sowing seed. — New York Times, June 6, 1918. 



Points before Quotations 

A dependent quotation may be preceded by any one of 
several structural points, or may be treated as an open sen- 
tence element. The popular supposition that a quotation 
must be preceded by a comma or other mark is an error 
inducing a waste of commas. In the following case pointing 
before the quotation is unnecessary : 

Now and then one meets a man who violently objects to being 
placed and classified. He takes pride in saying "I am not an 
'ist' nor an 'ite' and I subscribe to no 'ism.' n — Stuart P. Sher- 
man, On Contemporary Literature, p. 6. 

If sentence quotations may be so treated, the case is yet 
clearer when the expression is a mere book title or subordi- 
nate clause. 

Others agree more nearly with Thomas Wentworth Higgin- 
son, who says that he [Whitman] seemed, in Lanier's phrase, a 
"dandy roustabout," and gave the impression "not so much of 
manliness as of Boweriness." — W. B. Cairns, History of Amer- 
ican Literature, p. 389. 

Throughout his works we find him constantly urging "activity, 
activity, activity and common sense." — North American Review 
(editorial), May, 1918. 

There seems a world of truth in Pascal's words that "reason 
makes her friends only miserable." — P. M. Buck, Jr., Social 
Forces in Modern Literature, p. 26. 



Points before Quotations 153 

A sentence quotation serving as the direct object of a 
verb may or may not be preceded by a point. A quotation 
felt as an object may be grouped with the verb ; a quotation 
felt as being introduced is usually set off by a preceding 
comma or colon. 

A year later, at Bremen, he said, "We, the Hohenzollerns, 
regard ourselves as appointed by God to govern and lead the peo- 
ple whom it is given us to rule." — David Jayne Hill, in Harper's 
Monthly Magazine, July, 1918. 

Even the [British] journalists were not neglected, and in a 
speech to them the Kaiser said: "We belong to the same race 
and to the same religion. These are bonds which ought to be 
strong enough to maintain harmony and friendship between us." 
— lb. 

As an appositive point, the dash sometimes replaces the 
colon after words introducing a quotation. It is more in 
character when the quotation is introduced unexpectedly. 

And all the while the pretty young Americans (why do their 
fathers and mothers let them come over here?) watched the battle 
with exactly the same happy excitement that I have seen on their 
faces at a football game; they were all ready to turn down their 
pink thumbs for a German aviator, only — "Which are the Ger- 
mans?" one said, distractedly. — Margaret Deland, in Harper's 
Monthly Magazine, July, 1918. 

Choice between the comma and colon before a quotation 
is determined in part by the character of the introduction 
and the length of the quotation, in part by considerations 
of emphasis. Before a long quotation formally introduced, 
the colon is usually appropriate. Before a short quotation 
without formal heralding, the comma is usually better. But 
for special emphasis the colon may precede a short quota- 
tion, however light the introduction. A rule specifying 



154 Modern Punctuation 

choice according to the mere length of the quotation is 
arbitrary. 

The colon with dash before a quotation is a variant of the 
colon. The combination is habitually used by some book- 
publishers and even some newspapers when the quotation 
is separately paragraphed, seldom before a run-in quota- 
tion. According to the weight of authority among printers, 
the dash is unnecessary. 

The semicolon is never properly used to introduce a 
quotation, though it may happen to precede a quoted group. 

Instead of being dependent and suspended, a quotation 
may begin as an independent sentence even when intro- 
duced by previous words. The colon, the dash, and the 
comma are suspensive; the period is suspensive only in 
slight degree. 

He [Montesquieu] thus speaks of his experiences, and there 
is a germ of satire underlying the humor: "In France I make 
friends with everybody ; in England with nobody ; in Italy I make 
compliments to every one; in Germany I drink with every one." 
His appreciation of the wealthy people of his time is a little grim : 
"God shows his opinion of wealth by the kind of people he gives 
it to." — P. M. Buck, Jr., Social Forces in Modern Literature, p. 37. 

In such a State law is no law, for every day may see a repeal 
of all past acts and a committing of the State to untried novelty. 
"The natural place of virtue is near to liberty ; but it is not nearer 
to excessive liberty than to servitude." — lb., p. 46. 



The Interruption and Resumption of Quotations 

Where a quotation is interrupted by original matter, the 
boundary is usually marked with a comma, unless the 
quotation ends with a question or exclamation mark or with 
a dash. The quotation may be resumed after a comma or 
other point, in the same sentence or after a sentence point. 



Broken Quotations 155 

"But is it a good business?" they asked. 

"Good? I should say so!" replied the enthusiastic youngster. 
"It is the most fascinating thing in the wide world. . . . Why — " 
— R. S. Yard, The Publisher, p. 3f. 

"Oh — " murmured Mrs. Leveret, now feeling herself hopelessly 
astray .—Edith Wharton, Xingu, p. 9. 

"I suppose she nattered him," Miss Van Vluyck summed up — 
"or else it's the way she does her hair." — lb., p. 5. 

Of the following examples, the first two are ordinary 
cases with the comma. The third has a quotation break 
which requires no pointing. 

"As a matter of fact," I asked, "do you have many patients who 
come to be cured of their intolerance?" — S. M. Crothers, The 
Pleasures of an Absentee Landlord, p. 147. 

"Royalties exceeding ten per cent are immoral," Henry Holt 
is reported to have said. — R. S. Yard, The Publisher, p. 29. 

"Everybody reads the papers — nobody believes them" a cynic 
wrote, most untruthfully, for the reader can do little else than 
believe the paper if he is to believe anything. — D. C. Seitz, 
Training for the Newspaper Trade, p. 82f. 

Though most often resumed after a comma, an inter- 
rupted quotation may be resumed after a semicolon or other 
interior point, or after a sentence break, which may also 
be a paragraph break. 

"Quite," answered Mr. Doomer; "especially of late years one 
feels that, all said and done, we are in the hands of a Higher 
Power, and that the State Legislature is after all supreme." — 
Stephen Leacock, Moonbeams from the Larger Lunacy, p. 76. 

"... Often as I stand here beside the window and see these 
cars go by" — he indicated a passing street car — "I cannot but 
realise that the time will come when I am no longer a managing 
director and wonder whether they will keep on trying to 
hold the dividend down by improving the rolling stock or will 



Modern Pur 

declare profits to inflate the securities. These mysteries beyond 
the grave fascinate me, sir. . . ." — lb., p. 

Resumption after a full stop is not uncommon. In the 
first quotation above from Mr. Leacock the period might 
replace the semicolon, of course with the effect of giving 
sentence rank to the preceding words. 

Quotes in Combination with Other Marks 

Where an end quote and another mark occur together, 
the usual American rules of order are as follows : 

1. The comma precedes the quote mark 

2 The period precedes the quote mark. 

3. The interrogation or exclamation mark precedes the 
quote if required in order to give the extract interrogative 
or exclamatory character. Otherwise the quote mark pre- 



Their first principle is that nothing which is older than ten 
or fifteen years can be allowed to count. Otherwise, how could 
their criticism be "new"? — New York Evening Post, April 1. 
1918. 

But in what imaginable circumstances can you saj 
this idea is fine, but the style is not fine"? — Arnold Bennr: . 
Literary Taste, p. 46. 

The two examples are questions about quoted expressions. 
The sentence following contains a quoted question : 

"Has the bark of human civilization sailed so swiftly and pros- 
perously without a steersman V he asks. — F. M. Colby, Imagi- 
nary Obligations, p. 21 

The first of the following passages contains a quoted 
exclamation, the second is an exclamation regarding a 
quoted expression: 



Points with End Quotes 157 

Joe came in after hours one night and was greeted by the guard 
in the usual manner: "Halt! Advance and be recognized !" In 
answer to the question, "What's your name?" Joe replied, "Ah, 
you no guess it in a thousand years." — F. H. Rindge, Jr., in 
Harper's Monthly Magazine, July, 1918. 

What wonderful soldiers they will make if — and the Y. M. C. A. 
is knocking out the "if"! — lb. 

4. The colon or semicolon follows the quote mark unless 
a part of the quotation. But according to some printers, 
the semicolon should be included within the quote when- 
ever the extract is in clause form with subject and 
predicate. 

In the following sentence the quotation has no claim on 
the semicolon, the point belonging to the sentence as a 
whole : 

He [Henry James] had played in his childhood with books 
rather than boys; he had been kept away from his natural play- 
mates because of their "shocking bad manners"; he had never 
mingled with men in a business or a professional way; he had 
never married; he stood aloof from life and observed it without 
being a part of it. — Fred Lewis Pattee, American Literature 
since 1870, p. 192. 

5. Ellipsis periods or asterisks marking an omission from 
an extract precede the quote mark. Otherwise they fail to 
indicate that there is an omission. Of course the absence 
of ellipsis points does not imply that the extract is a 
complete document, such points being required only when 
there is need to call attention to the incompleteness of the 
extract. If the rule of the University of Chicago Press 
regarding reference marks were quoted in abbreviated 
form, it would be proper to mark the omission at the end : 

"For reference indexes, as a rule, use superior figures. 
Only in special cases should asterisks, daggers, etc., be em- 
ployed. . . ." — Manual of Style (fifth edition), sec. 232. 



158 Modern Punctuation 

6. An interruption dash belonging to a quotation pre- 
cedes the quote. A dash marking the end of an appositive 
quoted phrase, or belonging in any other way to the 
original rather than the quoted part, follows the quote 
mark. 

You have said to yourself in moments of emotion, "If only I 
could write ," etc. — Arnold Bennett, Literary Taste, p. 46. 

"I don't think your preferences will be consulted. But it 
does seem" — her face fell into painful lines of sincerity — "it 
really does seem that the sooner the smash of the whole darned 
thing comes the better. It isn't any easier to pull a tooth by 
degrees." 

(I may say that this thoughtful woman is a doctor, so 
her illustrations are natural enough.) — Margaret Deland, in 
Harper's Monthly Magazine, July, 1918. 

7. Suspension periods (periods not marking ellipsis) 
will serve their purpose clearly at the end of a quota- 
tion only if placed after the quote mark. Preceding it, 
they appear to be ellipsis marks. But since suspension 
periods are authors ' marks not inserted by printers even in 
deficient copy, they have not been reduced to uniform 
office practice. 

8. The quote mark at the end of a quoted expression 
in curves or brackets precedes the parenthetical point. 

In 1820 the death of Brown and resignation of Stewart 
vacated the chair of Moral Philosophy ; but the electors preferred 
to Hamilton his friend and fellow-Oxonian Wilson ("Chris 
topher North"), mentioned earlier in this volume as a literary 
man. . . . — T. S. Omond, The Romantic Triumph, p. 1 7 2. 

9. The apostrophe precedes the quote mark. 

These rules, with one exception noted below, are usually 
followed by a majority of the more careful American print- 



Single-Quote Styles 159 

ers. As for the rule that the comma or period shall precede 
the end quote, the University of Chicago Press makes no 
exceptions, though its rules in general are not specified for 
rigid application. 

The rules for end quotes in combination with other 
points apply generally to both the single and double marks ; 
but according tQ the style book of the Columbia University 
Printing Office, which follows the rule of the Clarendon 
Press, the order of single quote with comma or period 
' ' should be determined by the sense of the passage. ' ' The 
following example is given in illustration of one case: 

There are found in the census reports such odd-sounding 
designations as 'scribbling miller', 'devil feeder 5 , 'pug boy', and 
'decomposing man'. 

For a primary sentence-quotation enclosed in single 
quotes, the Clarendon Press style is as follows, the example 
being given in the Rules for Compositors and Readers 
followed at the University Press, Oxford: 

'At the root of the disorders', he writes in the Report, 'lies 
the conflict of the two races.' 

But the same sentence set according to the Atlantic 
Monthly style would be pointed thus: 

'At the root of the disorders,' he writes in the Report, 'lies 
the conflict of the two races.' 

There are many exceptions to the customary American 
rules of order, either intended or accidental; but those 
who let the quote mark always follow comma or period 
are with the American majority. 



160 Modern Punctuation 

Where double and single quotes appear together, with a 
comma or other point, the customary orders are as follows : 

With the period, the usual order is period, secondary 
quote, primary quote. In ordinary American practice 
that means period, then single quote, then double quote. 

He ordinarily says, 'To-morrow is Sunday' — that is, he says 
so if he uses the language as if it belonged to him and not as if 
he belonged to it. If he chance to be in the company of one who 
is in the latter unhappy situation, he is not unlikely to be inter- 
rupted by some such remark as this, "Pardon me, you should 
say, 'To-morrow will be Sunday.' " — Thomas R. Lounsbury, The 
Standard of Usage in English, p. 167. 

With the question or exclamation mark or with suspen- 
sion periods, the order is according to circumstances. 

"And what do you think of 'The Wings of Death'?" Mrs. 
Roby abruptly asked her. — Edith Wharton, Xingu, p. 10. 
One captain told me this as a joke on himself: 
"... After I had completed what I thought was a rather 
impressive speech one of the non-commissioned officers saluted 
and said, 'Excuse me, Captain, but that man doesn't understand 
a word you're saying !' " — F. H. Rindge, Jr., in Harper's 
Monthly Magazine, July, 1918. 

Capital or Lower- Case with Quotations 

There is an obstinate popular superstition that quota- 
tions, save only short phrases, must begin with capitals. 
As a matter of fact, even quotations with subject and 
predicate may begin with lower-case. 

It is— or shall I write, "it may be"?— H. G. Wells, What Is 
Coming? (p. 81). 

For "the truth is that the spectators are always in their 
senses, and know, from the first act to the last, that the stage 



Initial Lower-Case 161 

is only a stage and the players only players": "the delight pro- 
ceeds from our consciousness of fiction: if we thought murders 
and treasons real they would please us no more." — John Bailey, 
Dr. Johnson and His Circle, p. 213. 

The principal cases in which a quoted sentence may begin 
with a small letter are: 

1. When quotations are in series, as in the example 
just cited, or in the following from page 202 of the same 
book: 

Or take such sentences as that embodying the favourite John- 
sonian and Socratic distinction : "to man is permitted the contem- 
plation of the skies, but the practice of virtue is commanded"; 
... or such sayings as, "the truth is that no mind is much 
employed upon the present: recollection and anticipation fill up 
almost all our moments"; "marriage has many pains but celibacy 
has no pleasures"; "envy is almost the only vice which is practi- 
cable at all times and in every place"; ... or, last of all, to 
bring citation to an end, that characteristic saying about the 
omnipresence of the temptations of idleness: "to do nothing is 
in every man's power: we never want an opportunity of omit- 
ting duties." 

2. When the quotation is informally treated as if an 
ordinary sentence element. Quotations introduced by such 
a formula as in the following words usually begin with 
capitals. 

It has been wittily said of the insular Briton that "every Eng- 
lishman is an island." Mr. Justice Darling retorted that "every 
American is a continent." — Sir Martin Conway, The Crowd in 
Peace and War, p. 6. 

Secretary Lane proposes one immediate way of getting busy — 
that is, support of the bill now introduced into the House "which 
provides for a modest appropriation for the Bureau of Educa- 



162 Modern Punctuation 

tion to begin and conduct a vigorous and systematic campaign 
for the eradication of adult illiteracy." — The Outlook, April 10, 
1918. 

To quote a writer in the Independent, "the week marked an 
awakening of a professional consciousness on the part of Kansas 
newspaper men." — Merle Thorpe, The Coming Newspaper (Fore- 
word). 

But in the following case the length and character of 
the quotation obviously suggest an initial capital : 

Of Rose, the murderess, in The Other House, he says the most 
exquisite things — "She carries the j T ears almost as you do, and 
her head better than any young woman I've ever seen. Life is 
somehow becoming to her" — Stuart P. Sherman, On Contempo- 
rary Literature, p. 254. 

Interpolation and Ellipsis 

Expressions interpolated in quoted matter are custo- 
marily enclosed in brackets. Sometimes they are enclosed 
in curves, especially the unflattering commentary sic. But 
brackets are safer because unmistakable marks of inter- 
polation. 

Even the interpolation of a question or exclamation 
mark by way of commentary ought to be indicated, the 
interpolated point being otherwise misleading. 

For ellipsis within a quoted paragraph the customary 
sign is a group of spaced periods, less often asterisks, in 
addition to any point required at the place where the 
ellipsis begins. The number of periods or asterisks is 
usually three. The following passage illustrates the use of 
both brackets and ellipsis marks: 

So, in the beginning, all American newspapers, now more nu- 
merous, were exultant. "Liberty will have another feather in 



Brackets and Ellipses 163 

her cap. . . . The ensuing winter [1789] will be the commence- 
ment of a Golden Age," was the glowing prophecy of an en- 
thusiastic Boston journal. — A. J. Beveridge, Life of John Mar- 
shall, vol. II, p. 5. 

For an ellipsis of a paragraph or more, it is customary 
to use a full line of spaced periods; less often a full line 
of asterisks. Rules for the indication of ellipsis vary con- 
siderably from office to office. 

Ellipsis marks are treated as part of the quotation and 
accordingly are enclosed within the quote marks. The ab- 
breviation etc. indicating an ellipsis should be grouped 
with the citation. Otherwise it appears to stand for some- 
thing the writer has decided not to say. If the rule of the 
University of Chicago Press were quoted with the latter 
part omitted, the citation should be in this form : 

"Quotation marks should always include ellipses, and the phrase 
'etc.' when it otherwise would not be clear that it stands for an 
omitted part of the matter quoted. ..." 

If the title of the style book used by the Columbia Univer- 
sity Printing Office were given within quotes in abbreviated 
form, it might read ' ' Style Book of Typographical Practice 
at the University Printing Office, etc." 

Both brackets and ellipsis marks should be used with 
care. If badly placed they effect awkward grouping and 
so misrepresent the quoted matter. 

Ugly thoughts and doubts will arise; and the earth ... to 
the mature man or woman seldom remains a place of simple joy 
and gladness, but the home rather of . . . misery. 

There was lacking in [Rousseau] the control of a well-bal- 
anced intellect, which might have controlled his capricious and 
extravagant emotions. 



164 Modern Punctuation 

The ellipses in the first sentence and the bracketed substitu- 
tion in the second occur at awkward places. 

Where part of a sentence is left out, the remainder may- 
be united into one sentence with following matter; not 
necessarily with the next sentence, ellipsis marks being in- 
definite as to the extent of the omission. 

In any case the borrower should see that the abbreviated 
quotation is a true representation of the meaning. Quota- 
tion-garbling is inexcusable. 

In cases which do not call for the apostrophe, ellipsis 
from a word is usually managed with the ellipsis dash. 
Where a proper name, for instance Patterson, should be 

abbreviated or suppressed, the name may be written P 

or P ft, or may be represented simply by a dash. The 

length of the ellipsis dash is according to office rules, the 
two-em length being common. 

II. A Note on Capitals and Italic, (a) Capitalization 

Capitalization is controlled in large part by conventions 
varying from office to office. Some publishers prefer a 
' ' down ' ' style with few capitals. Others use capitals neces- 
sary to nothing in the world except their conservative office 
customs. The purpose of this section is merely to point out 
some uses of capitalization, with some of its dangers. 

1. Capitals properly used are an aid to clearness. The 
initial sentence capital or capital at the beginning of a 
quoted expression is a grouping signal. In the case of 
single words a capital may contribute to clearness by show- 
ing, for example, that Revolution refers to a particular 
revolution, or that College has specific reference, the meaning 
in such a case depending on the context. The expression a 
Fellow may mean clearly a University Fellow, whereas 
a fellow might be misleading. 



Uses of Capitalization 165 

The rule that proper names and proper adjectives shall 
be capitalized is indefinite because many words pass freely 
from one class to the other. The printing-office terms 
roman and italic are sometimes treated as proper nouns or 
adjectives; president and committee may become President 
and Committee, eighteenth century can be set Eighteenth 
Century, nature can be personified into Nature, Satan 
is alternately called devil and Devil; and such adjectives 
as dreiserian are occasionally formed even from the names 
of contemporaries. The use of lower-case for such words 
as macadamize, bowdlerize, gasconade, romance, and jere- 
miad — all of them derived from proper names — is familiar. 

2. Capitals are used for courtesy or reverence, whether 
real or satirically assumed. Contrary to the usual Bible- 
typography practice, some prefer to use the capitalized 
pronouns He, His, and Him whenever the pronoun refers 
to any person of the Trinity, whether a capital is needed 
for clearness or not. 

It is customary to write the President of Harvard, but 
the janitor of Haviland Hall, the capital for President 
being out of respect for the higher office. 

A reversal of the reverential capital appears in such a 
phrase as ''the badger laf ollette, ' ' as used in an editorial 
by Mr. George Harvey. The respectful use of capitals has 
a natural reaction in satirical capitalization, of which the 
classic exponent is Mr. George Ade. 

3. Capitals are used for emphasis. Topical capitals so- 
called are capitals marking technical or important terms 
for special notice. 

The three general purposes of capitalization are only 
theoretically distinct. The capitalization of Senate or of 
a pronoun referring to God may be for both clearness and 
respect. Similarly the capitalization of terms for emphasis 
should contribute to clearness. In Mr. Ade's Fables in 



166 Modern Punctuation 

Slang capitals are an essential part of the writer's re- 
sources. 

This haughty Harriet had put the tag of Disapproval on the 
War, just to prove that her perfumed Personality could not be 
shifted by any movement of the Common Herd. 

She was one of those Women that the Minute you meet her you 
have a Curiosity to get acquainted with her Husband and listen 
to his Explanation of how it happened. 

The dangers which attend the unskilful use of capitals 
are overemphasis, stiltedness, exaggerated respectfulness, 
and bad movement. By attracting attention to the words 
or groups they begin, capitals often interfere with the 
movement of composition. 

(b) The Use of Italic 

Italic type, indicated in printers' copy by single-under- 
lining, are mostly auxiliary to roman body type. Where 
the text of a passage is in italic, the functions of italic and 
roman are reversed. Italic and quotes are often inter- 
changeable, the use of the one making the other unneces- 
sary ; they are not often used together. A point which fol- 
lows an italicized expression is customarily italic. 

Italic type are used in text matter for the following 
purposes : 

1. For emphasis. The use of italic for this purpose is 
sometimes convenient; but too frequent italicizing may 
effect sensational or crude emphasis, and may give an air 
of pedantry or self-satisfaction. 

2. To mark short foreign expressions which are still 
felt to be foreign. 

Spelling and grammar, therefore, became as obsolete as the 
medieval trivium and quadrivium, and were reckoned among the 
lost arts. — A. S. Cook, The Higher Study of English, p. 52. 



Italic, Quotes, Capitals 167 

3. To mark upon first mention, but not necessarily there- 
after, words as words, words accompanied 1/ commentary 
or definition, sometimes even letters. For this purpose 
italic may be made unnecessary by the use of quote marks, 
or sometimes of capitals. 

Evangelical and sincere were new words much used by Protes- 
tants of their doctrines; and now, by their unfortunate identifi- 
cation of the Hebrew Sabbath with the Christian Sunday, they 
fastened on that day the sabbatic law of the Old Testament. — 
L. P. Smith, The English Language, p. 195. 

Nor is this introduction of the i/-element limited to the letter 
when used alone. — Thomas R. Lounsbury, English Spelling and 
Spelling Reform, p. 130. 

A word named as a word is sometimes given designation 
by the context without the use of either italic or quotes. 
It is permissible to write: 

The term rhetoric means the art of communication. 
The term "rhetoric" means the art of communication. 
The term 'rhetoric' means, etc. 
The term rhetoric means, etc. 
The term Rhetoric means, etc. 

The considerations governing choice among styles are 
clearness, proper emphasis, and consistency. 

4. To designate the titles of books, poems, musical com- 
positions, and other works of art. For this purpose the 
alternative styles are roman quote and roman open. 
Whatever style is used, it is not necessary to quote or 
italicize Old Testament, Iliad, Seventh of March Speech, 
Introduction, or Sistine Madonna. 

5. According to the styles of some publishers, for the 
names of ships and for sic, i. e., e. g., and some other ex- 
pressions. 



168 Modem Punctuation 

6. For special editorial purposes. In the most familiar 
version of the Bible it has been customary to use italic for 
words not directly represented in the original. 

7. Sometimes for prefaces, introductions, or other minor 
parts of a book. In such a passage roman type may be 
used for emphasis or special designation. 

Save for emphasis-italic, one may save trouble by fol- 
lowing a good style book. The use of italic for emphasis is 
a matter of taste, the safe decision in doubtful cases being 
against italicizing. 

III. Abbreviation and Etymological Pointing 

The marks included here are those, except the dash and 
quote marks, which designate a word as being abbreviated, 
plural or genitive, extemporaneous or imperfectly coalesced, 
or divided. 

The name etymological pointing might be applied to the 
use of quotes for special designation and of the dash for 
ellipsis; but to save repetition, quotes and dashes will be 
omitted from this section. Under these limitations, the 
marks used for abbreviation and etymological pointing 
are (1) the period, (2) the division hyphen, (3) the com- 
pounding hyphen, (4) the apostrophe, (5) brackets or 
curves enclosing letters for designation as doubtful, wrong, 
or interpolated. This use of curves and brackets is too 
special or infrequent to require more than mention. 

(a) The Abbreviation Period 

According to the New English Dictionary an abbreviation 
is ' ' a shortened form of a spoken word, or written symbol ; 
a part of a word or symbol standing for the whole.' ' A 
distinction between abbreviation and contraction would 



The Abbreviation Point 169 

not be useful for the present purpose even if definite. Wm. 
for William and advt. for advertisement are most con- 
veniently called abbreviations although shortened by omis- 
sion within. 

If Thos. stands for TJiomas, the shortened form takes the 
abbreviation period. If Thomas is called Tom by his 
friends, Tom is not an abbreviation but an alternative name. 
Nor is soph an abbreviation when used as campus slang, 
though it may properly appear as soph, in a table of courses 
in the college catalogue. A word is not an abbreviation 
because derived from a longer word, as cab is derived from 
cabriolet or bus from omnibus, the derivation being relevant 
only so far as the longer form is remembered with the 
shorter one. Where bus is written 'bus (given as an alter- 
native form by the Concise Oxford Dictionary), the apos- 
trophe is a reminder of the longer form. 

A given form may be set alternately as an abbreviation 
and as a word. Per cent appears with no period in cer- 
tain books and newspapers, with the abbreviation point 
in other publications no less carefully printed. The form 
without the period is obviously more economical, and is 
justified by the familiarity of the expression. The fact 
that cent is short for centum probably does not occur to 
more than one in five of the people who have occasion to 
write it. 

A number in place of a word, like 20 for twenty, is not 
an abbreviation. It is a symbol in figures instead of a 
symbol in letters. 

Roman ordinals such as XV in the name Louis XV are 
sometimes treated as abbreviations, but are more often set 
without the abbreviation point. 

Even syllables are sometimes treated as words, as in 
the following sentence from Mr. L. P. Smith's English 
Language (p. 87) : 



170 Modern Punctuation 

We form adjectives, too, in al, ous, ose, ese, ary, able, etc.; 
verbs in fy, ate, ize, and ish. 

In like manner it is quite permissible to use ism and 
ite as words, meaning "creed or programme" and "adher- 
ent of a definite doctrine or policy." 

Since there is no generally effective legislation in cases 
on the border-line between words and abbreviations, the 
obvious thing is to follow in general the practice of a single 
style book except where there is good reason for change. 

Whether words shall be abbreviated or not is a question 
of taste and occasion. The style book of the Columbia 
University Printing Office says in regard to this : " In text 
matter abbreviations should be avoided. They are suitable 
in detailed, commercial, or technical matter but not in 
printing of a formal nature. ' ' In footnotes, bibliographies, 
tables, and memoranda, abbreviations may be an aid to 
clearness, besides being economical. 

Where an abbreviation is followed by a colon, there is 
good authority for omitting the abbreviation point; and 
where an abbreviation point occurs at a break which would 
normally be marked by a comma, the comma may sometimes 
be omitted. Mr. De Vinne (Correct Composition, p. 291) 
gives the following example of a sentence in which the 
comma would be superfluous: 

He was there at 6 p. m. but he was too late. 

(b) The Apostrophe 

The apostrophe marking the genitive, says the New Eng- 
lish Dictionary, "originally marked merely the omission 
of e in writing, as in fox's, James's, and was equally com- 
mon in the nominative plural, especially] of proper names 
and foreign words (as folio's = folio es) ; it was gradually 
disused in the latter, and extended to all possessives, 



Uses of the Apostrophe 171 

even where e had not been previously written, as in man's, 
children's, conscience' sake. This was not yet established 
in 1725." The history of the apostrophe helps to explain 
its use as a sign of the genitive, of omissions, and some- 
times of the plural. 

The three uses of the apostrophe are as follows : 

1. To indicate, with or without the letter s, the genitive 
case of nouns, as in Frank's hat, the children's playthings, 
for conscience' sake. Except in a few cases (especially 
with sake) the genitive singular is formed by the addi- 
tion of the apostrophe and s ; but awkwardness of pronun- 
ciation suggested by an added s may call for such a form as 
Moses' law or Sickles' Corps. 

The genitive plural is formed by the addition of the 
apostrophe when the nominative plural ends in s, otherwise 
by the addition of apostrophe and s, as in women's. Geni- 
tives of pronouns (its, yours, theirs) do not take the apos- 
trophe. 

2. To form with 5 the plurals of numerals and signs, 
of letters (''dot your i's and cross your tV), of words 
mentioned as words ("three very's in one sentence"), and 
sometimes of abbreviations like Y. M. C. A. and of 
"polysyllabic proper names ending in a sibilant," such as 
Pericles. But such plurals as the Pericles' and Socrates' 
of literature (a specimen given by one of the best current 
manuals) are clumsy forms, of course avoidable by manage- 
ment of wording. Printing offices have to handle such 
expressions because unmerciful authors sometimes write 
them. 

There is some latitude in the use of the apostrophe for 
plurals. It is proper to write the three R's or the three 
Rs, in the 1900' s or in the 1900s, they came by two's or 
they came by twos. The forms without apostrophe are 
gaining ground. 



172 Modern Punctuation 

The plural of a proper name like Henry is not formed 
with apostrophe and s, but by the addition of s. 

The Henrys live on Elm Street. 

Henrys' (with apostrophe) is the genitive plural of Henry. 

The Henrys' automobile was stolen last night. 

3. To indicate the omission of one or more letters, as in 
wasn't, sleep o' nights, it's for it is; often also to indicate 
pronunciation, as in dialect stories. 

The elision apostrophe is often used unnecessarily. In 
his teens should not be written in Jiis 'teens, because teens 
is a common noun standing for any one of seven numbers. 
In like manner it is unnecessary, indeed illogical, to use an 
apostrophe in such expressions as the seventies of the last 
century. 

In forms like Peterboro' and tho' (for Peterborough 
and though) the final apostrophe is usually objectionable 
because half-hearted. If the abbreviated forms are used, 
it is better in most cases to use them without apology. 

(c) The Division Hyphen 

Though the hyphen has only one form in general use, 
it has two distinct functions. The division hyphen is used 
for division of words ordinarily written solid, the com- 
pounding hyphen for the union of expressions which have 
not coalesced or which have not been recognized as solid 
orthographical units. 

In preparing copy for the printer there is often need 
to differentiate the two kinds of hyphens by using a short 
straight stroke for the division mark and two short up- 
slanting strokes for the compounding hyphen, as in the 



The Division Hyphen 173 

New Standard Dictionary. If a word like courthouse is 
broken at the end of a line in manuscript, the compositor 
should be relieved of the decision whether to set it hyphened 
or solid. 

The division hyphen is used for the following purposes : 

1. At a line break, to show that the word so divided is 
normally a solid word, broken simply because the line is 
not long enough to hold it. 

According to the American system, division is mainly ac- 
cording to pronunciation, etymological lines being followed 
so far as the indication of pronunciation permits. As Mr. 
De Vinne has said, "a book is supposed to be written for 
the convenience of the reader, and not to illustrate the 
author's scientific knowledge of the derivation and proper 
dissection of words derived from foreign languages." 

The meaning is most likely to be clear when the division 
is on an accented syllable, as in founda-tion, con-sonant, 
etymol-ogy, lexicolo-gical ; but division on light syllables is 
often necessary, especially in narrow measure. The divi- 
sion anticipa-tory is legitimate and may be more convenient 
than the division anti-cipatory. 

It is considered undesirable in careful wide-measure 
printing to carry over a short syllable like er, ed, or ing; 
but words with these endings often have to be divided, as 
sound-ed, sound-ing, com-ing, bold-er, black-est. If a con- 
sonant is doubled before such an ending, the second letter 
of the doublet is carried over with the ending : begin-ning, 
stun-ning, imbed-ded, fat-test. In tell-ing the preceding 
consonant is double, not doubled. 

In general the endings ed (if the e is pronounced), 
er, ing are treated as separate syllables, being carried 
over without a preceding consonant except when the pre- 
ceding consonant has been doubled, as in scan-ning or 
admit-ted. But in such words as spacing, changing, 



174 Modern Punctuation 

cringing, dancing, the rule for ing works badly. The 
University of Chicago Press, a first-rate authority, has a 
rule against ending a line with a soft c or g or with a j. 
It prefers not to divide such words as spacing; where divi- 
sion is unavoidable it prefers the division spa-cing, despite 
the customary rule. As between spac-ing and spa-cing, or 
between danc-ing and dan-cing, the consideration of clear- 
ness is altogether in favor of the forms in which the c is 
carried over. 

If a word contains a compounding hyphen, other division 
should if possible be avoided; a second hyphen in such a 
word as self-sacrifice or extra-liazardous would be objec- 
tionable. 

In general, careful printers avoid unnecessary, frequent, 
and awkward divisions, and divisions which would mar the 
appearance of the page. Any division may be considered 
awkward which misleads or annoys the reader, or amuses 
him contrary to the writer's purpose. Rear-rangement, 
bull-dozing, prog-eny, struct-ure, critic-ism are bad divi- 
sions; and so also are any possible divisions of nothing, 
horses, or William. But in short lines there may be need 
to divide Christian names, long figures like 200,000, even 
monosyllables like killed. 

Details of division may ordinarily be left to the printer, 
if he is a good printer; for questions of division involve 
questions of white space. Ideal division may be less impor- 
tant than good spacing. 

The trouble and. expense of making corrections for the 
sake of better division will often indicate a policy of com- 
promise. Mr. De Vinne makes the astonishing statement 
(Correct Composition, p. 141) that "the time wasted in 
overrunning and respacing lines to avoid divisions objected 
to by proof-reader and author is a serious tax upon the cost 
of composition — not less in the aggregate than one fifth the 



The Compounding Hyphen 175 

cost of type-setting alone." Clearness depends far less 
upon proper division of words than upon the proper use of 
structural points. 

2. The division hyphen is sometimes used to exhibit 
the syllables or letters of a word for a special purpose. 

The constituent elements are un-tru-th-ful-ly. 

De-liberate is akin to liberate. 

The Author wises it to be understood that Erewhon is pro- 
nounced as a word of three syllables, all short — thus, E-re-whon. 
— Samuel Butler, Erewhon, Preface to First Edition. 

The dieresis sometimes competes with the division hyphen 
in such words as preeminent and cooperate, which may be 
written with dieresis {preeminent, cooperate), with division 
hyphen (pre-eminent, co-operate), or with neither. The 
choice of forms in such cases will be according to style- 
book prescription or individual taste. But such a form as 
unco-ordinated should not be admitted under any circum- 
stances. It looks like a Scots-Latin hybrid. 

3. The hyphen is sometimes used, especially by novelists, 
to suggest hesitation or stuttering. 

Panky, hardly lifting his head, sobbed out, "I think we ought 
to have our f-f-fo-fo-four pounds ten returned to us." — Samuel 
Butler, Erewhon Revisited, p. 241. 



(d) The Compounding Hyphen 

The compounding hyphen (sometimes in the distinctive 
form ss) is used to exhibit compounds as extemporaneous or 
imperfectly coalesced. Just what shall be hyphened has to 
be decided arbitrarily in part, because dictionaries and 
style books do not agree. 

Extemporaneous coinages include such expressions as 



176 Modern Punctuation 

the Russo-Japanese War, the counter-revolutionary faction, 
a ten-parlor-car train, "so-ness" (a humorous or satirical 
coinage), and seven-cent fares, which may also be written 
7-cent fares where figures are better. In the expressions 
1914-1918 and the New York-Philadelphia mail printers 
commonly use not the hyphen but the en dash, in the latter 
case because one of the names is in two words. 

According to careful American practice, the important 
classes of expressions which regularly or usually take the 
compounding hyphen are (1) compounds with self in which 
self is like an object and the other part like a verb, (2) 
compound numerals like twenty-six, (3) prepositional- 
phrase compounds like son-in-law, (4) adjectival com- 
pounds of words naming colors {silver-gray tone), (5) 
expressions in which the hyphen is necessary to clearness, 
as in re-creation (remaking), which without the hyphen 
might be confused with recreation, and (6) certain com- 
pounds beginning with ex, pre, pro, ultra, quasi {ex- 
governor, pre-Shakespearean, pro-German, quasi-compli- 
ment). Miscellaneous words usually hyphened include 
party-colored, great-grandson and similar words of relation- 
ship in the fourth generation, and words with fellow- except 
fellowship. 

Akin to the seZ/-words are the numerous compounds in 
which the parts are in verbal-objective relation, as in hero- 
worship and property -holder. But short and common com- 
pounds of the same type {taxpayer, proofreader) are cor- 
rectly written either hyphened or solid. Choice is according 
to office rules. 

The use of the hyphen to make impromptu compounds, 
as in three-to-em space or British- Japanese alliance, is well 
established. The hyphen enables the writer to turn an ordi- 
nary phrase into an adjective, using large scale in large- 
scale production, limited liability in limited-liability com- 



The Hyphen a Grouping Mark 177 

panics, direct current in direct-current circuit. Such com- 
pounds are used in the ordinary adjective position before 
their nouns. Changed from that position, they cease to 
require the hyphen. 

The forms today, tonight, tomorrow are alternative with 
to-day, to-night, to-morrow. The hyphened forms are more 
common in books and still current in some newspapers; 
the forms without hyphen are commonly used by news- 
papers and are preferred by some of the best book printers. 
The age and familiar use and the pronunciation of these 
words all suggest the solid form. If the syllable to- were 
accented, there might be some reason for retaining the 
hyphen. 

Many words like courthouse, footnote, byproduct are 
written either solid or hyphened. Choice in such cases 
will make little difference save on the score of uniformity. 

Some writers are violently opposed to the use of the com- 
pounding hyphen. An unnamed "prominent publisher" 
is quoted by Mr. Charles Francis (Printing for Profit, p. 
242) as saying: "All hyphens are a nuisance; don't put 
any in my work except where you divide at the end of a 
line." Of course all hyphens are not a nuisance. Com- 
pounding hyphens properly used are a means of clear 
grouping. 

The hyphen is usually a nuisance in suspended expres- 
sions like ten- or twenty-dollar notes. It is clearly a nui- 
sance when unnecessary to meaning or consistency. Hy- 
phenation may be awkward, self-conscious, even misleading. 
When a writer in the North American Review told his 
readers that Germany had been searched for certain mate- 
rials "with a fine tooth-comb," he succeeded at least in 
showing that the hyphen is a grouping mark. The com- 
pounding hyphen affects the apparent grouping and at the 
same time suggests a recession of accent. 



178 Modern Punctuation 

IV. Pointing for Reference 

Reference points, more properly called indexes, are 
employed to facilitate reference to notes at the foot of the 
page or elsewhere, the notes bearing similar signs. Marks 
of reference include superior figures, superior letters, and a 
series of seven conventional marks: the star or asterisk (*), 
the dagger (t), the double dagger ($), the section mark 
(§), parallels (||), the paragraph mark (fl), and the index 
or hand ( jgp* ) . 

Where the seven conventional signs are used, the first 
note on a page is designated by the star, the second by the 
dagger, and so on through the series, each page beginning 
a new series. These marks are seldom used at present where 
notes are numerous, being too few unless awkwardly 
doubled for notes exceeding seven, and being objectionable 
on the score of appearance. They also require to be 
changed where matter is repaged, whereas superior figures 
can be used for an indefinite number of notes. In linotype 
composition much expense may be saved by numbering 
notes through a whole chapter or article, for the paging 
can seldom be predicted exactly enough to save resetting 
of lines. This practice is usually best even in hand-set 
work. 

Where footnotes are few, the first two or three of the 
series (star, dagger, etc.) are sometimes preferred to supe- 
riors. Some books with few footnotes use superior figures, 
with a new series for each page. 

A reference mark in the text is placed immediately after 
the statement or word to which its note refers. If the index 
occurs at a punctuated structural boundary, the index cus- 
tomarily follows the point. Since reference marks may be 
felt as if structural points, they are least obtrusive when 
placed at the ends of sentences. 



Objectionable Indexes 179 

Reference indexes are interruptions which should be 
required to justify themselves. Under ordinary circum- 
stances, the writer should give relevant and useful matter 
its proper place in the text. He should not use footnotes 
for display of unseasonable learning. His problem is care- 
ful selection and skilful composition, so that his readers 
may read straight ahead. 

If a writer must frequently refer to cases and authorities, 
he may find footnotes the most convenient device for the 
purpose. Without them he may have to clutter his text 
with parentheses. 



CHAPTER VIII 

THE INDIVIDUAL STRUCTURAL POINTS, AND 
POINTS IN COMBINATION 

In previous chapters the punctuation marks have been 
treated by classes according to their functions. The present 
chapter, necessarily repeating in a new order much of the 
matter contained in Chapters IV- VII, deals with the points 
one by one. 

For avoidance of repetition, the combination of period 
or comma with dash will be included under the dash. And 
since the colon with dash is a variant of the colon, this 
combination will be mentioned in the account of the colon ; 
necessarily also in the passage (pp. 231ff.) regarding the 
dash as a reinforcing point in general. 

As an account of quote marks in this chapter would have 
to be a mere repetition or abbreviation of that in Chapter 
VII (pp. 139ff.), nothing need be said of quote marks except 
in relation to the structural points. For a similar reason 
there will be no sections in this chapter on the apostrophe 
or the two kinds of hyphens. For the apostrophe, see pages 
170ff . ; for the division hyphen, see pages 172ff. ; for the 
compounding hyphen, see pages 175ff. For reference in- 
dexes, and for their use with structural points, see page 
1781 

The purpose of this chapter is to set forth the character, 
the uses, and the abuses of the structural points — period, 
suspension periods, question and exclamation marks, colon, 
semicolon, comma, dash, curves, and brackets. 

180 



Grouping with the Period 181 

I. The Period 

The period is the most frequent of all punctuation marks 
except the comma. Logically it outweighs all the other 
points except those others which are used to mark the end 
of a sentence ; but its frequency and its lack of suspensive 
quality make it practically a light and rapid mark, however 
emphatic. 

Comparatively speaking, the period is not suspensive. 
But it is emphatic because with the initial capital it marks 
a group as a sentence. Suppose the following passage from 
Mr. G. K. Chesterton's Heretics (p. 267) were written with 
periods in place of the main-clause points: 

There is nothing, for instance, particularly undemocratic about 
kicking your butler downstairs. It may be wrong, but it is not 
unfraternal. In a certain sense, the blow or kick may be con- 
sidered as a confession of equality: you are meeting your butler 
body to body; you are almost according him the privilege of 
the duel. 

The result will be like this: 

There is nothing, for instance, particularly undemocratic about 
kicking your butler downstairs. It may be wrong. But it is not 
unfraternal. In a certain sense, the blow or kick may be con- 
sidered as a confession of equality. You are meeting your butler 
body to body. You are almost according him the privilege of 
the duel. 

Every group pointed with the period in the altered form 
could pass muster as a sentence ; but the pointing is unfor- 
tunate because it hides instead of revealing the relations 
of the statements to each other and to the context. So far 
as the points and capitals are concerned, the groups are 
of equal rank. 



182 Modem Punctuation 

The period as a decimal point and the raised period in 
decorative printing are beyond the field of discussion. In 
text matter the period has the following uses : 

1. As a full stop marking the end of a sentence which 
is not exclamatory, interrogative, or unfinished. (A sen- 
tence, as defined with relation to pointing, is a group either 
full or elliptical which is given sentence rank by initial 
capital and by terminal pointing.) But special meaning 
may suggest the use of the question or exclamation mark 
in spite of declarative form. 

You are ready? I don't believe it! 

The period is sometimes reinforced with suspension 
periods for special effects — often by some writers, never by 
others. 

I looked up a scholar from Yale, Yutaka Minakuchi, friend of 
old friends, student of philosophy, in which he instructed me 
much, first lending me a collar. He became my host in Ashe- 
ville. It needs no words of mine to enhance the fame of Japanese 
hospitality. . . . — Vachel Lindsay, A Handy Guide for Beg- 
gars, p. 84f. 

In this sentence the suspension periods hold attention for 
an instant on the last words of the paragraph. Used within 
a paragraph they are likely to emphasize both preceding 
and following matter. 

The other sentence points are the question and exclama- 
tion marks, the terminal dash, the colon with following 
capital, and suspension periods. Since a given set of words 
js not inherently a sentence, periods may be said to compete 
also with points used for compounding, series grouping, 
and other uses. See especially pages 52ff. (Points and 
Paragraph Movement) and 67fi\ (the Pointing of Main 
Clauses) . 



Suspension Periods 183 

2. In groups (usually of three), either spaced or close, 
as suspension periods; so called because they mark preced- 
ing matter as unfinished, or left dangling an instant for 
special attention. Suspension periods may be used within 
a sentence or as terminal points ; in the latter case with or 
without another sentence point. 

"It's begun," he announced incoherently. "The Cossacks are 
charging the crowds in the streets. . . . Revolution. . . ." — 
Roger Lewis in the World's Work, April, 1918. 

"Come in," he said; and as he spoke the droning voice grew 
still . . .—Edith Wharton, Ethan Frome, p. 27. 

"Live for art! If I had to choose whether I would lose either 
art or science, I have not the smallest hesitation in saying that 
I would lose . . ." — Samuel Butler, Erewhon Revisited, p. 98. 

Theoretically suspension periods are used in addition to 
the sentence point if the sentence is complete, by themselves 
if the sentence they terminate is unfinished. Actually there 
is no uniformity of practice. 

Being at once vague and emotional, suspension periods 
are held objectionable by some writers. But since they are 
used more or less freely by many authors of recognized 
ability — among them Mrs. Wharton, H. G. Wells, Arnold 
Bennett, Robert Herrick, Galsworthy, and Samuel Butler — 
a prohibition of suspension periods addressed to the world 
at large would be a waste of legislation. 

The point nearest suspension periods in effect is the 
dash. 

3. Periods in groups, usually of three, are commonly used 
to indicate ellipsis from a quotation. Instead of periods, 
asterisks are sometimes used, more often in newspapers than 
in books. According to a rule sometimes specified, omis- 
sions of less than a paragraph are marked with ellipsis 
periods, long ellipses being marked with asterisks; but 



184 Modern Punctuation 

this distinction is not always made or always convenient. 
A common practice when a paragraph or more has been 
omitted is to use a full line of ellipsis periods or asterisks. 
The kind, number, and spacing of ellipsis points vary con- 
siderably from office to office. 

4. Period leaders may be used to guide the eye across 
a page, as in tabulated lists. Hyphens and dashes are also 
used as leaders. 

5. A single period with or without following dash may 
be used to point a side-head which is not a part of the 
first sentence of its paragraph. The following example 
uses the period without a dash. 

10. Attitude towards Slang. Since slang is not an 
abnormal or diseased growth in language, but arises in the 
language just as other words arise, there is no reason why such 
words in themselves should be condemned. Intrinsically they are 
not bad, but rather good, in so far as they show activity of mind 
and a desire to be vigorously expressive. . . . — George Philip 
Krapp, Modern English: Its Growth and Present Use, p. 209. 

Where the side-head is an integral part of the first sen- 
tence the period is not used. 

6. The period may be used after a section number or 
letter, as at the beginning of this paragraph, but some 
printers rule that white space may make the point unneces- 
sary. Section numbers may be enclosed in curves, especially 
those which show divisions within a paragraph. 

7. The period is often used as an abbreviation point. 
Decision whether a given expression is to be called an 
abbreviation is partly arbitrary. So far as decision is logi- 
cal, it depends mainly upon whether the form is felt as 
representing a longer expression or not. For the nature of 
abbreviations, and for the use of the period and the apos- 
trophe, see pages 168-172. 



The Question Mark 185 

The Period with Other Marks 

Except as an abbreviation point, the single period (as 
opposed to grouped periods for suspension or ellipsis) does 
not enter into combination with the interrogation or excla- 
mation mark, the colon, the semicolon, or the comma. For 
the period with »dash, see page 232 ; for the period with 
curves and brackets (the same rule applying to both), see 
page 237. 

With quote marks, the usual though not invariable 
American rule is to let the period precede under all cir- 
cumstances. But with the single quote the order is some- 
times determined by the sense, the period preceding if 
the quotation is a sentence but following if the quoted 
matter is merely a phrase. The distinction is lost on most 
readers and is a matter of indifference to many expert 
printers. With the question or exclamation mark the order 
makes a clear difference. 

The abbreviation period at the end of a sentence may 
coincide with the terminal period, one mark serving for 
both functions. If the terminal point is an exclamation or 
question mark, the abbreviation period precedes. 

II. The Question Mark 

The question mark is used far less frequently by most 
writers than the period, semicolon, or dash. Its usefulness 
depends not on frequent employment, but rather on occa- 
sional use for the sake of paragraph suspension and inter- 
rogative emphasis. The question mark is essentially an 
appeal to the reader. In the following paragraph from an 
editorial in the New York World (March 16, 1918) the 
question form is used for suspensive and emphatic develop- 
ment. 



186 Modem Punctuation 

It is within the power of either House at Albany to find out 
precisely who and what the Anti-Saloon League represents. Is 
it anything more than a self -constituted coterie of bigots and 
bulldozers? Who supplies it with funds? For what social, 
political and religious bodies does it assume to speak? The 
people whose chosen representatives are regularly stampeded by 
a force as mysterious as it is dictatorial have a right to know. 

Interrogative sentences are often useful at the begin- 
ning of paragraphs for emphatic introduction of the topic. 
They are also useful for topical changes and for develop- 
ment. 

The question mark has the following uses : 

1. As a terminal mark for direct questions or quotations, 
rarely for indirect questions except those felt as if direct. 
In the following sentences (from an editorial in the New 
York Times for May 23, 1918) the second question mark 
points the interrogative quotation and serves also as a sen- 
tence point. 

What, however, is a made-to-order Boswell to do in the case 
of such a very different Napoleon ? ... As soon as Mr. Rosner 
has arrived the Kaiser turns to the officer who is serving, if 
we may so phrase it, as Mr. Hennessy to his Mr. Dooley, and 
says, "What have I not done to preserve the world from these 
horrors?" Mr. Rosner duly notes it, retires at the proper signal, 
and the characteristic utterance is properly Boswelled to the 
world. 

In justice to the Times it should be explained that the dots 
after the first question mark are ellipsis points, not suspen- 
sion periods. 

2. As an interior structural point, but far less frequently 
than at the end of a sentence or a quoted question. 

(a) Marking the end of an interrogative parenthesis: 



Minor Uses of the Question Mark 187 

The boys of Harrow — or was it Eton? — voted him the finest 
of poets. — John Macy, The Spirit of American Literature, p. 108. 

That Lanier was a musician as well as a poet (is there any 
other professional musician in English poetry?), and that he ex- 
pressed his theory in "The Science of English Verse," are facts 
caught at too eagerly by those who would account for some of 
his most evidently musical arrangements of words. — lb., p. 317. 

(b) As a compounding or series point, the two uses being 
not always easy to distinguish. This use of the question 
mark is infrequent. In the second of the following exam- 
ples the group following the question mark may be called 
either an adverbial phrase or an elliptical clause. 

And what calm, intellectual joy Miss Sedgwick takes in very 
gradually stripping these goddesses! Where did she learn this 
particular art? who taught her such a lesson of bitterness? — 
William Lyon Phelps, The Advance of the English Novel, p. 297. 

The fact is, no such man [as Bryant] ever sat, before or since, 
in the editorial chair; and in no one other has there been such 
culture, scholarship, wisdom, dignity, moral idealism. Was it all 
in Greeley? in Dana? — W. E. Leonard, in the Cambridge History 
of American Literature, vol. I, p. 276. 

And the young? how could such a lie as that a chariot and 
four horses came down out of the clouds enter seriously into the 
life of any one, without distorting his mental vision, if not 
ruining it? — Samuel Butler, Erewhon Revisited, p. 181f. 

In compound interrogative sentences the prevailing custom 
is to reserve the question mark for the end of the sentence. 

(c) Alone or within curves or brackets — brackets if in- 
terpolated in quoted matter — to mark a figure, date, or 
other expression as doubtful, or to indicate a gap in the 
available information. 

In 1666 a Virginia colonist, George Alsop (1638-?), published 
in London a little volume entitled A Character of the Province of 



188 Modern Punctuation 

Maryland. — Carl Holliday, The Wit and Humor of Colonial Days, 
p. 33. 

Thomas Kyd, 1557 ( ?) -1595 (?)— From table of authors in 
G. H. Maii^s English Literature: Modern, p. 253. 

The semicolon was not a recognized stop in England until 
1643 [?], hence we may conclude that Shakespeare must have 
written his plays without its aid. — P. P. Claxton and James Mc- 
Ginnis, Effective English, p. 529. 

The question mark in the last sentence is not in the text 
of Effective English; it has been interpolated and therefore 
bracketed. As a matter of fact the semicolon was used by 
Shakespeare in Venus and Adonis (1593), by Bacon in the 
Essays of 1597, by the publishers of the King James Bible 
in 1611. It was also recognized by Ben Jonson in the 
English Grammar long before 1643. 

The question mark in curves as an ironical commentary 
is likely to be ineffective, as in this sentence : 

He is so fond of doing his duty ( ?) that I can't get along with 
him. 



The Question Mark in Combination 

The question mark is seldom used with any marks other 
than quotes, suspension periods, and parenthetical points 
(dashes, curves, brackets). Now and then an ingenious 
person uses the question mark with comma or semicolon 
or colon; but such pointing is exceptional and eccentric. 

The interrogation point precedes the quote mark if the 
quotation is a question ; otherwise it follows the quote. In 
the following paragraph (from page 74 of Mr. H. G. Wells's 
What Is Coming?) the pointing shows that the quoted 
matter is interrogative. The dots following the quote mark 
are suspension periods. 



The Exclamation Mark 189 

"Meanwhile," they will say, with a stiff impatience unusual 

in their class, "about us?" '. . . 

A question mark intended to point a parenthesis pre- 
cedes the second of the two marks enclosing the parenthesis, 
as in the two examples on page 187 above. But if the 
question mark belongs to a group ending with an expres- 
sion in curves, the question mark follows the parenthetical 
point. 

Does he mean the Second Republic (1848) ? 



III. The Exclamation Mark 

The exclamation mark has been variously called the note 
of admiration, the shriek of surprise, the representation of 
an excited gentleman jumping skyward. The author of 
The Queen's English says in his positive way, "Use . . . 
as few as possible of these nuisances." But since the ex- 
clamation mark properly used is not a nuisance, the in- 
junction is intemperate, though given with the most worthy 
motives and pointed with the unemotional period. Those 
who frame prohibitions with regard to punctuation marks 
apparently assume that there is nothing between debauch- 
ery and total abstinence. 

The exclamation mark is used, often as an alternative to 
other points, for the following purposes : 

1. As a terminal point, marking the end of a sentence 
or quotation. The group so marked may be in exclamatory 
form, or may be outwardly declarative, imperative, or in- 
terrogative. Question and exclamation marks are some- 
times close alternatives, as in the forms Isn't it fine? and 
Isn't it fine! Either pointing calls on the reader to esti- 
mate the situation. 



190 Modern Punctuation 

Pretty work the elders make of explaining it! They talk 
about style, character-drawing, the "epic" of pioneer life, and 
they attribute to this most popular yarn-spinner literary virtues 
no more appropriate to him than to the graven images of Chin- 
gachgook that used to stand before the tobacco shops. Style? 
His style is one of the obstacles that the story plows through, 
like Bumppo shouldering through underbrush. Listen to this! 
[A quotation from Cooper follows.] — John Macy, The Spirit of 
American Literature, p. 37. 

May it not be so in this case? Consider! We have just re- 
versed our traditional Eastern policy to accommodate Japan; we 
have acknowledged the rightfulness of her claim to special privi- 
leges in China, without consulting China and against China's pro- 
test; surely Japan cannot be ungrateful for the one great conces- 
sion which she has sought in vain for years. — North American 
Review, January, 1918. 

In the two passages the exclamatory sentences are useful 
for variation of tone and emphasis. 

2. Infrequently as an interior structural mark for com- 
pounding, for series, and for the emphatic pointing of pre- 
liminary or parenthetical matter, including vocatives. The 
following sentence has specimens of exclamation marks for 
both main-clause breaks and emphatic vocatives. 

"Boy !" said the famous master, James Boyer, to little Samuel 
Coleridge when he was crying, the first day of his return after 
the holidays, "Boy! the school is your father! Boy! the school 
is your mother! Boy! the school is your brother! the school is 
your sister! the school is your first cousin, and your second 
cousin, and all the rest of your relations! Let's have no more 
crying." — Percy H. Boynton, London in English Literature, 
p. 207. 

But this arrangement is exceptional. Much oftener the ex- 
clamation mark is saved for the end of the sentence, or else 
the successive statements are pointed as sentences. 



Interior Exclamation Marks 191 

Where the exclamation mark belonging to a quotation 
comes at a clause break, it may serve also as a compounding 
point. 

Hanky for a time continued to foam at the mouth and roar 
out, "Tear him to pieces ! burn him alive !" but when he saw that 
there was no further hope of getting the people to obey him, he 
collapsed on to a*seat in his pulpit, mopped his bald head, and 
consoled himself with a great pinch of a powder which corre- 
sponds very closely to our own snuff. — Samuel Butler, Erewhon 
Revisited, p. 211. 

The pointing of preliminary matter with the exclamation 
mark is exceptional. Even such expressions as Oh and 
Alas do not necessarily take the exclamation mark. In the 
great majority of cases the exclamation mark occurs at the 
end of a quotation or sentence. In this paragraph from 
A Sheaf, by John Galsworthy (p. 220), the exclamatory 
vocatives are treated as sentences: 

Great and touching comrade! Clear, invincible France! To- 
day, in your grave chivalry, you were never so high, so desirable, 
so true to yourself and to Humanity! 

The use of the exclamation point at the end of parentheti- 
cal matter is the most common use within the sentence save 
for the pointing of quoted matter. 

The contribution, as it was so politely termed — war having need 
of so many euphemisms! — was subsequently reduced to forty- 
five million francs. — Brand Whitlock, "Belgium under the Ger- 
man Heel," in Everybody's Magazine for June, 1918. 

3. The exclamation mark is sometimes used between 
curves to mark an expression as unusual or ironical, or is 
interpolated within brackets (less properly within curves) 



192 Modem Punctuation 

as a commentary on quoted matter. The exclamation mark 
in the first sentence following is an unsuccessful piece of 
irony. 

His prudent and able ( ! ) management saved only the remnants 
from destruction. 

Three volumes of unimpeachable poetry [ !] have been written 
in America: "Leaves of Grass/' the thin volume of Poe, and 
the poetry of Sidney Lanier. — John Macy, The Spirit of Ameri- 
can Literature, p. 309. 

The exclamation mark is shown by the brackets to be an 
interpolation. 

The Exclamation Mark with Other Points 

The exclamation mark may occur with ellipsis periods 
or asterisks, with suspension periods, with parenthetical 
points (dashes, curves, brackets), sometimes with the dash; 
almost never with colon, semicolon, or comma. Ellipsis 
periods, suspension periods, or the dash may precede or 
follow according to circumstances. With parenthetical 
points the exclamation mark precedes if intended to point 
the parenthesis, but follows if belonging to a group con- 
taining the parenthesis. With quote marks the exclama- 
tion point precedes or follows according to the meaning, 
preceding the quote if the quotation is exclamatory. The 
principles of order are the same as for the question mark. 



IV. The Colon 

The colon is usually an equality mark with emphasis 
mainly on the explanation, quotation, or other following 
matter. Though still used by many writers as a compound- 
ing point no more anticipatory than the semicolon, it is 



The Nature of the Colon 193 

most often a mark of anticipation introducing an extract, 
a list, or matter of any sort for which definite preparation 
has been made. The colon is ordinarily the most formal 
of all points, but varies in effect with the wording. For 
this reason it is sometimes light, though usually emphatic. 

The compounding colon is used by so few American writ- 
ers as to be in snme danger of extinction. But the Ameri- 
can minority is of respectable strength, and is reinforced 
by the example of British writers, who in general are less 
restricted by rules and journalistic conventions than their 
American contemporaries. The question whether to use 
the compounding colon is a question of utility rather than 
correctness. If the colon is useful for clearness and good 
movement, there is good reason and authority for using it. 
Save for effects on movement and emphasis, with incidental 
effects in the direction of variety, there is no function of 
the compounding colon which cannot be performed by one 
of the other points; but some first-rate writers appear to 
consider the exceptions important. 

The colon in text matter has the following uses : 

1. As an anticipatory point, especially though not always 
after formally introductory wording. The matter so in- 
troduced may be a quotation, a list, an appositive or ap- 
positive series, a salutation (Dear Sir or the like), or other 
matter. The nearest equivalent of the colon in this use is 
the dash. The anticipatory colon may be used at the end 
of a paragraph to suspend attention upon a following para- 
graph or series. 

The colon may replace the period at the end of a sen- 
tence introducing the topic of a passage. As the colon so 
used is strongly suspensive, the presumption is in favor of 
the period. In the following case the colon-pointed words 
introduce a passage of five sentences with two paragraph 
breaks. 



194 Modern Punctuation 

Here is a case in point : An underwear house in New York sold 
a bill of goods to a storekeeper in Milan. He ordered from 
sample and the firm's agent demanded that the draft be attached 
to the bill of lading. The buyer refused to agree to these terms, 
on the ground that the shipment might not be up to the sample. 

"But you know our name," said the salesman. 

"Then I suggest that you find out something about mine for 
a change !" said the indignant Italian as he canceled the order. — 
Isaac F. Marcosson, in the Saturday Evening Post for March 
9, 1918, p. 101. 

The expression Here is a case in point might end with a 
period ; it is no more definitely introductory than many ordi- 
nary topical sentences. For example, the first three sen- 
tences of a paragraph on page 244 of Mr. De Vinne 's Correct 
Composition are pointed as follows, the introductory group 
taking the period. 

Two systems of punctuation are in use. One may be called 
the close or stiff, and the other the open or easy system. For 
all ordinary descriptive writing the open or easy system, which 
teaches that points be used sparingly, is in most favor, but the 
close or stiff system cannot be discarded. 

According to both logic and the weight of good usage, 
the period is preferable when the matter introduced is 
developed through several sentences. If the development 
is completed within a single sentence, the colon has more 
justification. 

An introductory. clause with colon is sometimes followed 
in the same paragraph by a small letter, sometimes by a 
capital. There is no fixed rule. The general custom of 
compound sentences suggests a small letter unless the fol- 
lowing word would be capitalized without regard to the 
clause break. If the colon suspends a series of sentences, 
the first sentence naturally begins with a capital. But 



The Appositive Colon 195 

apart from quotations, colon and following capital are in- 
congruous. 

A subordinate group following a colon and standing in 
apposition to the preceding words will usually begin with 
a small letter. In the first of the following examples the 
colon is an informal appositional point; in the second it is 
formal by virtue* of the wording. 

In the present war this spirit amounts to a cool and set 
resolution that the enemy must and shall be destroyed: a con- 
viction far transcending the personal risks and wrongs and sen- 
sibilities of the soldier. — From an editorial in the New York 
Evening Sun. 

A reading public and a theatre public differ in this: that 
what the reader loses he may regain by turning back, but what 
the audience misses is wholly lost, unless, by chance, repetition 
brings it further on in the development of the plot. — Montrose 
J. Moses, The American Dramatist, p. 19. 

In such sentences there is no need to suppose with certain 
textbook writers that a namely has been omitted. In all 
probability the use of so formal a word was not considered. 

Before namely with an appositive not separately para- 
graphed, the options are comma, semicolon, colon, dash. 
According to the weight of current textbook authority, 
namely should be preceded by colon or dash and followed 
by the comma. (See pages 98ff.) At the end of a para- 
graph, namely is usually preceded by a comma and fol- 
lowed by a colon or dash. 

The rules for namely are generally applicable to as, to 
wit, and similar expressions. But some of them are in- 
formal enough to permit lighter punctuation. 

2. The colon is sometimes used between main clauses 
without clear anticipatory quality, or it may be at once 
anticipatory and compounding. 



196 Modern Punctuation 

Those who know best what it is like abhor its every aspect: 
many of them are fighting with the splendid faith that they are 
giving their lives to end War, not just this war. — Robert Herrick, 
in the Dial, February 14, 1918. 

We are more than doubtful about the status of Washington: 
he was the Father of his Country, but he lacked a certain in- 
dispensable tang. — Stuart P. Sherman, On Contemporary Litera- 
ture, p. 26. 

For definitions are very dreadful things: they do the two 
things that most men, especially comfortable men, cannot endure. 
They fight; and they fight fair. — G. K. Chesterton, The Utopia 
of Usurers, p. 36. 

For that source we must go back to the remote beginnings of 
our era, and look into the obscure mingling of Oriental and 
Occidental civilization which followed the invasion of Alexander's 
army into Asia, and which, under the all-merging sway of the 
Roman Empire, created a new faith and a new world: more 
definitely, we must look into the confluence of Eastern religion 
and Western philosophy. — Paul Elmer More, The Drift of Ro- 
manticism, p. 20. 

In the last example, the colon might be replaced by the 
period. Such decisions are a matter of taste. 

The compounding colon is sometimes used before such 
connectives as but and for; much oftener in the absence 
of a conjunction. 

Such a tribute by boys to intellectual superiority was less rare 
in those days than it has become since: but it would not be easy 
to find a parallel to it at any time. — John Bailey, Dr. Johnson 
and His Circle, p. 15. 

The colon is occasionally used between members of a 
clause series : 

For if a true novel be a good story well told, it is certain 
that the majority of so-called novels are not stories at all: of 



The Semicolon 197 

the saving remnant, only a few are good stories: and still fewer 
are well told. — Williams Lyon Phelps, The Advance of the Eng- 
lish Novel, p. 13. 

To most editorial writers this use of the colon would no 
doubt seem eccentric. 

3. The colon has certain arbitrary or semi-mechanical uses 
which may occur in straight matter, as in scriptural and 
literary references, expressions of time, or bibliographical 
entries: Matthew 1: 4-8; "The Tempest/' Li; 11: SO in the 
morning (alternative with 11.30) ; "The Writer's Desk 
Book," New York: Stokes. 



The Colon with Other Points 

The combination of colon with dash is alternative with 
the colon. This combination is often used before a quota- 
tion or a series of particulars separately paragraphed, or 
after the salutation in a letter. The colon and dash together 
accomplish no more than the colon alone; but the 
colon-dash combination is regularly used before a para- 
graphed quotation in some newspaper offices and by certain 
book-publishers of the highest standing. 

When the colon occurs with a terminal quote mark, the 
colon follows the quote unless a part of the extract. 



V. The Semicolon 

The semicolon is the most clearly marked balancing or 
coordinating point. For antithesis and for coordinate mem- 
bers in series other marks are used, but no other is so 
clearly specialized. The semicolon is not a general-utility 
point like the comma, a parenthetical point like the comma 
or dash, or a formal apposition mark like the colon. It 



198 Modern Punctuation 

may be used between groups in apposition or between noun 
and modifier, but with the suggestion that they are approxi- 
mately coordinate. As a series point the semicolon is often 
alternative with the comma. As a compounding point it 
competes with comma, colon, dash, and with period, ques- 
tion mark, and exclamation mark; for there is often diffi- 
culty in deciding whether a group should stand as a main 
clause or be given the rank of a sentence. The decision in 
such a case involves considerations of emphasis, clearness, 
and paragraph movement. 

There is an obstinate popular misunderstanding in re- 
gard to the semicolon, held even by certain editors and 
textbook writers. In a current work entitled Effective 
English, by Messrs. P. P. Claxton and James McGinnis, 
one finds this summary statement (page 531) : ''There is a 
marked disposition to do away with the semicolon where it 
[the semicolon?] can be done with safety. Of course, there 
are times when this point is indispensable, but its use 
should be limited to cases where no other mark will do." 

The passage is addressed to students; but the wording 
is such as to give the impression that the semicolon is 
rapidly passing into oblivion for writing in general, and 
should be avoided whenever another mark can possibly be 
stretched into service. If one is to accept this opinion, 
with others of the same kind in currency, the use of the 
semicolon is a piece of ostentatious formality. 

The semicolon is in fact used by editorial writers in such 
periodicals as the North American Review, the New York 
Nation and Evening Post, the New Republic, the Satur- 
day Evening Post, the New York Sun, the New York 
Times, even the New York American. It is also used by 
Colonel Watterson ("Marse Henry"), Mr. Irvin Cobb, 
Mr. Don C. Seitz, Mr. S. G. Blythe, Mr. J. L. Given, and 
Mr. William Allen White — newspaper men all six of them 



Prejudice Against the Semicolon 199 

— and by such writers as Miss Agnes Repplier, Mr. Mere- 
dith Nicholson, Mr. S. M. Crothers, Mr. G. K. Chesterton, 
and Mr. Arnold Bennett. In fact there are few good writ- 
ers, publishing books under their own names, who deny 
themselves the use of the semicolon. In a modern style 
with economical use of connectives, the semicolon is often 
an indispensable grouping point. 

In the list of twenty periodicals and writers on page 
249, newspapers and newspaper men making about half the 
list, the semicolons are outnumbered only by commas and 
periods. And in the table of editorial pointing on page 
251, the semicolon is still third of all points in frequency. 
Its nearest competitor for third place is the dash. 

Newspaper editorial practice is significant because such 
writing must be direct and readable. If the semicolon 
were stiff and obsolete, it would seldom be found in news- 
paper writing. 

The popular prejudice against the semicolon has its 
grain of truth. The semicolon — like every other punctua- 
tion mark — has been overworked. It has also gained a bad 
name through its association with formal writing. 

In this sentence, of a type still offered as good writing in 
some accounts of punctuation, the semicolons are felt as 
being stiff and formal : 

Philosophers assert, that Nature is unlimited in her opera- 
tions; that she has inexhaustible treasures in reserve; that know- 
ledge will always be progressive; and that all future genera- 
tions will continue to make discoveries. 

But the effect of the pointing is difficult to distinguish 
from the effect of the formal wording. 

In business letters the semicolon is not often useful. 
In news stories it is often dispensed with, save for lists of 
names with addresses and the like, on the ground of edito- 



200 Modern Punctuation 

rial preferences — not at all because the semicolon is useless 
for narrative, but because young men doing unsigned work 
are often expected to limit themselves narrowly in point- 
ing as in style. Such restrictions are not likely to be im- 
posed on responsible writers even in a newspaper office. 

The semicolon has the following uses : 

1. As a compounding or main-clause point. The com- 
pounding semicolon separates main clauses which would 
be too light if separated by the comma, and too distinct 
or formal if separated by colon, dash, period, question 
mark, or exclamation mark. What point should be used 
in a given case will depend only in part on the length 
of the clauses. Circumstances which may make the 
semicolon preferable to the comma are the absence of a 
connective, the use of a logical in place of a grammati- 
cal connective (pages 71ff.), length or complexity of parts, 
or a shift of subject between first and second clause. On 
the other hand, any of these circumstances may make a full 
stop preferable to the semicolon. Each case has to be 
decided in relation to the context. (See above, page 67.) 

In the following passage the colon, semicolon, and comma 
exhibit statements according to their different rank : 

In general, there are two main matters to remember in con- 
nection with introductions: the opening portion of a composition 
puts the writer under certain obligations to his reader, and these 
have been already mentioned; again, the less formality about 
introductions, and about conclusions as well, the better for all 
concerned. — Percy H; Boynton, Principles of Composition, p. 28. 

The compounding semicolon is used both with and with- 
out connectives, and with clauses either full or elliptical. 
The following sentences have the semicolon with gram- 
matical connective. 



The Compounding Semicolon 201 

So I do not insist on detailed accounts of how the boy passes 
his time in class or at play; for what are time and space and 
grammatical sequence to the child? — Simeon Strunsky, Post- 
Impressions, p. 126f. 

"Kill the dog, he is a reviewer," cried the young Goethe; and 
in an age nearer our own William Morris expressed his contempt 
for those who earn a livelihood by writing their opinions of the 
works of others. — J. E. Spingarn, Creative Criticism, p. 3f. 

The semicolon is the typical mark for the separation of 
clauses without connective or with a link word like also, 
hence, or nevertheless. Except with yet, the comma is 
seldom sufficient at a clause break with a logical connective. 
Whether the semicolon is preferable to the period is a 
question of clear and otherwise effective presentation. 
There is no cast-iron rule. 

It should seem that a party whose theories are based on con- 
fidence in untrammeled human nature ought to present the aims 
and destinies of mankind in a fairer light than its adversary; 
yet the very contrary is the fact. — Paul Elmer More, Aristocracy 
and Justice, p. 169. 

No such partiality in Dante ; he paints what he hates as frankly 
as what he loves, and in all things he is complete and sincere. — 
George Santayana, Three Philosophical Poets, p. 134. 

Strikes again in Austria; this time, significantly, in the north, 
where the unyielding hatred of the Czechs for the dynasty and 
the ruling nations has constantly hampered the Hapsburg Govern- 
ment since the beginning of the war. — New York Times, March 
18, 1918. 

In the last two examples the initial clauses are elliptical. 

The compounding semicolon may be a balancing point, 
as in this example : 

The cause which the flag stands for may be foolish and fleet- 
ing; the love may be calf-love, and last a week. But the patriot 



202 Modem Punctuation 

thinks of the flag as eternal; the lover thinks of his love as 
something that cannot end. These moments are filled with eter- 
nity; these moments are joyful because they do not seem momen- 
tary. Once look at them as moments after Pater's manner, and 
they become as cold as Pater and his style. Man cannot love 
mortal things. He can only love immortal things for an instant. 
— G. K. Chesterton, Heretics, p. 108f. 

In this passage balance is managed with the semicolon and 
also (in the last two sentences) with the period. In like 
manner, antithetical balance with it is and it is not may 
employ more than one type of punctuation. 

I do not, therefore, say that the word "progress" is unmean- 
ing; I say it is unmeaning without the previous definition of a 
moral doctrine, and that it can only be applied to groups of 
persons who hold that doctrine in common. — G. K. Chesterton, 
Heretics, p. 37. 

I am not scolding her for this, I am merely mentioning it. — 
William Lyon Phelps, The Advance of the English Novel, p. 296. 

Antithesis and balance may exist between phrases, sen- 
tences, even larger groups. The sentences above illustrate 
only two of the possible styles. 

The compounding semicolon can be anticipatory like the 
colon, though lighter. The semicolon is the mark most 
often used when a second clause answers a promise made 
or implied in the first clause. 

In the last few years of his life he received a higher honor 
than a degree from any university however venerable; he re- 
ceived the highest honor within the gift of the Republic. — Stuart 
P. Sherman, On Contemporary Literature, p. 25. 

2. As a series point. The semicolon is often used in 
lists of names with addresses or titles, names with figures, 



Semicolon with Series 203 

and other lists where commas would be insufficient to sepa- 
rate the groups clearly or with sufficient emphasis. 

See volume II, chapters 3 and 4; volume III, chapter 7, sec- 
tions 1 and 2. 

Yeas, 2; nays, 3. (Alternative style: Yeas 2, nays 3.) 
The works cited are The Writer's Desk Book, by William Dana 
Orcutt; Correct* Composition, by Theodore L. De Vinne; the 
Manual of Style, by the Staff of the University of Chicago Press ; 
and the Style Book of Typographical Practice, by Douglas C. 
McMurtrie. 

When the parts are light and simple enough to be clearly 
grouped by commas, commas are usually preferable. 

Clauses or other groups in common dependence may be 
separated by semicolons or commas, the choice of points 
depending on the complexity and weight of the parts. 

He [the writer on the "laws" of punctuation] must begin by 
admitting that no two masters of the art would punctuate the 
same page in the same way; that usage varies with ever} r print- 
ing-office and with every proofreader; that as regards the 
author, too, his punctuation is largely determined by his style, or, 
in other words, is personal and individual — "singular, and to the 
humor of his irregular self." — Wendell Phillips Garrison, "A 
Dissolving View of Punctuation," Atlantic Monthly, August, 1906. 

3. As a mark of apposition. Though not customarily a 
mark of apposition, the semicolon is sometimes the most 
convenient point, especially when the appositive group is 
in series or is felt as an elliptical main clause. 

When the war is over there will be great numbers of men whose 
lives have been hopelessly jolted, who have to find new occupa- 
tions; men qualified and jorobably only too willing to take posi- 
tions of technical instruction and military training under such 
a scheme. — John Galsworthy, A Sheaf, p. 348. 



204 Modern Punctuation 

I mean the idea that there is some sort of dignity in draw- 
ing the sword upon a man who has not got a sword; a waiter, or 
a shop assistant, or even a schoolboyj — G. K. Chesterton, The 
Appetite of Tyranny, p. 37f. 

In the following sentences the appositive relation blends 
with either series or compounding. 

For any kind of pleasure a totally different spirit is required; 
a certain shyness, a certain indeterminate hope, a certain boyish 
expectation. — G. K. Chesterton, Heretics, p. 109. 

We can do nothing now, perhaps, save prosecute the fight to its 
appointed end; but if we are not to turn out fraudulent after 
the event, it is already time to feel ahead; to accustom our 
minds to the thought of the future efforts, imperial and social, 
needful to meet future dangers, and to fulfil the trusts we shall 
have taken up. — John Galsworthy, A Sheaf, p. 332. 

Of the paragraph semicolon, which is practically obsolete 
in good printing, enough has been said in Chapter IV 
(page 54). Where matter capable of standing as a single 
paragraph, is divided into paragraphs by way of tabula- 
tion, the usual terminal mark is the period. 

For the traditional use of the semicolon before namely 
and similar expressions, see pages 98ff. 

The Semicolon with Other Marks 

The semicolon may occur with ellipsis or suspension 
periods, with the second of a pair of curves or brackets, 
rarely with the dash, of course often with quote marks. 
For the order of semicolon with curves, see page 238 below. 
With ellipsis periods, the semicolon precedes or follows, 
according to the position which the omitted words would 
fill if present. Suspension periods may either precede or 
follow the semicolon. 



The Series Comma 213 

subject. The groups may vary from single words to long 
subordinate clauses. (Sentences and main clauses may be 
said to be in series, but such, cases are best included under 
sentence and main-clause pointing.) Repetition may be 
a kind of series, though shading into apposition. Series 
may be suspended, with or without commas, as when the 
antithetical correlatives not and but are employed. 

The appearance without the reality of series exists in 
such expressions as big British transport. Big and British 
are not rhetorically coordinate, the first adjective being a 
modifier of the noun group British transport. But where 
one writes the humbugging, treacherous talk about no 
annexations, the adjectives are coordinate members of a 
series properly pointed with the comma. 

Commas may be required between members of a series for 
clearness, especially when the relations are not made clear 
throughout by conjunctions. They may be used for 
emphasis even with conjunctions present. It is impossible 
to frame rigid and at the same time safe rules. 

It is not very unusual to find open series without con- 
junction. A pure cold halo about him, a fine fat specimen, 
the thin gray line — these are cases of series which commas 
would not help. 

With conjunction present, there can be no fixed rule. 
The emphasis properly given to a series or any part of it 
will depend on its importance in the paragraph — a matter 
for determination by cases. 

The following examples are typical cases of comma point- 
ing between members of series : 

The truth of the matter, as Mr. Chesterton would say, is, first, 
that writing, along with speaking, eating, sleeping, putting on 
clothes, and coming out of the rain, is one of the great universal 
acts of modern life. — William Tenney Brewster, Writing English 
Prose, p. 7. 



206 Modern Punctuation 

An interesting suggestion regarding the effect of the 
comma is made by Miss Constance M. Kourke in an article 
listed on page 16 above. "The comma, called the half- 
point or semi-circular mark by Aldus, with its tiny hook 
or curve leftward, creates a suspension, an effect of in- 
completeness, as surely as the period is suggestive of con- 
clusion. The comma emphasizes but at the same time sub- 
ordinates; by its office parts of the whole statement come 
out distinctive, yet each is kept relative to the larger pur- 
pose." "A word or phrase cannot be 'set off,' as the 
rhetorics say, by commas; the mark from its form simply 
fails to affect the expression by which it is followed. ' ' 

First, is it true that the comma regularly subordinates? 
As a parenthetical point it does, as a compounding or series 
mark it does not. In earth, air, and sea, the commas show 
that the nouns are in series. In the sentence I came, I saw, 
I conquered, the commas are as truly coordinating as if 
they were semicolons. 

Again, is it true that the comma cannot "set off" a 
word or phrase? When commas group a parenthesis like 
however or on the other hand, do they not set it off? 

But the main question is whether it is true that by virtue 
of its form the comma "simply fails to affect the expres- 
sion by which it is followed." In all probability the signifi- 
cance of the form, "with its tiny hook or curve leftward," 
has not occurred to a fourth of those who use the comma 
with intelligence. The effect of the comma will depend on 
much more than the shape of the point. 

Like most other marks, the comma is a suspension point 
which influences both preceding and following matter. Its 
effect may be seen in these examples : 

Napoleon had therefore to face now, not only the cabinets 
of Europe and the regular armies that they directed, but a people 



The Comma a Suspensive Mark 207 

who were being organized to defend their country. — James 
Harvey Robinson, Introduction to the History of Western Eu- 
rope, p. 623. 

They therefore promised England a promise, on condition that 
she broke a promise, and on the implied condition that the new 
promise might be broken as easily as the old one. To the pro- 
found astonishment of Prussia, this reasonable offer was refused! 
— G-. K. Chesterton, The Appetite of Tyranny, p. 25f . 

The comma after now in the example from Mr. Robinson 
emphasizes the preceding words, but also emphasizes by 
suspension the words which follow. In the passage from 
Mr. Chesterton, the first comma adds emphasis to the group 
on condition that she broke a promise. The second comma, 
by breaking up the close series with and, makes both mem- 
bers of the series more emphatic. The comma in the second 
sentence of the same passage is a boundary which divides 
the sentence into two groups, giving both parts more em- 
phasis by suspension. 

The curve of the comma may have some influence in 
directing attention backward for an instant. What con- 
tributes more to this effect is the position of the comma, 
close to the preceding word and divided by white space 
from the word that follows. 

The effect of the comma in respect to the distribution of 
emphasis depends in very slight degree on its shape as 
shape, in greater degree on its position and the following 
white space, but far more on its frequency, on the con- 
text, on the grammatical and rhetorical relations which the 
customary uses of the comma suggest. A comma dividing 
a sentence into two groups will make both parts more 
distinct; it cannot group one without at the same time 
grouping the other. As a grouping and suspension mark, 
the comma inevitably affects the words which follow it, 
even though its relation be primarily to those that precede. 



208 Modern Punctuation 



The Most Frequent of the Points 

In the twenty passages listed in Table B (page 249), 
commas are the most numerous of all the structural points, 
their total being 9801 as against 7852 periods and 2347 of 
all other structural points put together. In the twenty 
passages there are only four in which the commas are out- 
numbered. In the aggregate, commas represent 49 per cent 
of the structural points used, periods coming next with 
39.26 per cent, semicolons third, and dashes fourth. 

This frequency of the comma is an argument rather for 
careful than for liberal use. Light as the comma is in 
comparison with the other points, it can make writing awk- 
ward and formal, even when clear. The effect is observable 
in the following sentence from the preface to a book on 
punctuation : 

As a sentence may contain the four principal marks (comma, 
semicolon, colon, and period) and, in addition, one or more of 
the other marks, a writer courts failure if, in treating the diffi- 
cult art of punctuation, he deals with the marks separately, 
beginning, as all writers, myself included, have hitherto done, 
with the comma, the most difficult mark to understand, and pro- 
ceeding, one at a time, with the other marks. 



The Uses of the Comma 

The comma has the following uses, for most of which 
there are alternative points. The comma is with minor 
exceptions the lightest and most colorless mark for each 
of the uses named* 

1. As a compounding point without connective, with con- 
nective, rarely with logical connective. 



Comma without Clause Link 209 

Without Connective 

Where link words are absent, the most frequent points 
between successive statements are the period, the semicolon, 
and the comma. The use of the comma without clause 
connective is increasing. 

Circumstances favoring the comma are brevity of parts, 
parallel structure, a lighter weight in the paragraph than 
the semicolon would indicate, climactic structure, swift 
paragraph movement. Since much depends on the mo- 
mentum of the passage, no safe rule can be given in terms 
of sentence length or even structure. The comma without 
clause connective is too delicate an instrument to be used 
by rule. 

The following passages are typical : 

England alone remained outside the pale, England alone had 
not been brought to bend the knee to the great conqueror. Even 
she was breathing heavily, because the Continental System was 
inflicting terrible damage upon her. Factories were being forced 
to shut down, multitudes of laborers were being thrown out of 
work or were receiving starvation wages, riots and other evidences 
of unrest and even desperation seemed to indicate that even she 
must soon come to terms. — Charles Downer Hazen, Modern 
European History, p. 228f. [An entire paragraph.] 

There were many more points of difference than of similarity 
between them. They spoke different languages. They belonged 
to different religions, the Dutch being Protestant, the Belgians 
Catholic. They differed in their economic life and principles. 
The Dutch were an agricultural and commercial people and 
inclined toward free trade, the Belgians were a manufacturing 
people and inclined toward protection. — lb., p. 281. 

The last sentence of the second passage is sufficiently 
pointed with the comma in this context. Elsewhere it 
might be better with the semicolon. 



210 Mod on Punctuation 

In the following passage from page 265 of the book just 
cited, the clauses of the second sentence are bound together 
by modifiers in common: 

Vaccination and gas illumination were forbidden for the simple 
reason that the French had introduced them. In Piedmont French 
plants in the Botanic Gardens of Turin were torn up, French 
furniture in the royal palace was destroyed in response to this 
vigorous and infantile emotion. 

For compound sentences in obverse relation, with is not 
and is, the most frequent mark is the semicolon. But there 
are cases with the comma. 

How can a boy like such writing as that, pompous, inhuman, 
erring against every feeling of nature? The boy does not like 
it, he disregards it. — John Macy, The Spirit of American Litera- 
ture, p. 37. 

In the following cases of what has been called veiled 
subordination the coordinate relation is only apparent : 

The truth is, were everything known about good usage with 
the positiveness with which assertions about it are made, the 
constant controversies which arise in regard to it would be a 
simple impossibility. — Thomas R. Lounsbury, The Standard of 
Usage in English, p. 96. 

He cannot come until Tuesday, he tells me. 

The compounding comma without connective requires 
careful management. If not supported by structure and 
paragraph movement, it is likely to seem careless or illit- 
erate. 

With Grammatical Connective 

Where a grammatical connective is used — the connectives 
of this class being and, out, for, or, nor — the alternatives 
are comma, semicolon, colon, dash, comma with dash, or no 



Comma with Conjunction 211 

point at all. And of course there is always the option of 
making a sentence break. It is sometimes taught in schools 
that a sentence may not begin with a grammatical connec- 
tive; but ten minutes' examination of almost any modern 
magazine will make it clear that sentences, even paragraphs, 
may begin with any of the five connectives. For the gen- 
eral subject of main-clause pointing, see pages 67ff. 

Two-clause sentences with a grammatical connective may 
take the comma under widely varying conditions of length 
and complexity. * 

A small German boy perched on the low branch of a tree fell 
off and broke his arm on somebody's head, and it took the driver 
of an ambulance exactly thirty-two minutes to work his vehicle 
three-quarters of a city block to the spot where the boy had fallen. 
— Julian Ralph, as quoted in the New York Sun, May 9, 1918. 

In this sentence the compounding comma happens to be the 
only interior point ; but there are very numerous cases in 
which the comma is sufficient even with other commas in 
one or both of the clauses. 

They consult each other, we know, but it always appears that 
they do their consulting only over some immediate question of 
the moment, as when France submitted to England Kaiser Karl's 
letter to Sixtus. — New York Times, June 8, 1918. 

In a series of three or more clauses with a grammatical 
connective between the last two members but none between 
the others, it is customary to use a point before the con- 
junction. 

Parties still existed, different war policies were advocated, 
but partisanship in war matters was abandoned. — The Outlook, 
April 10, 1918. 

Carelessness apart, the style with no conjunction (He 
agrees, I agree hut nobody else agrees) is uncommon even 



212 Modern Punctuation 

in newspapers. The no-comma rule is often applied to 
predicates in series, seldom to ful} clauses with a subject 
and a verb for each part. 

With Logical Connective 

The connectives not included in the " grammatical' ' list 
(the grammatical connectives being and, but, for, or, nor) 
ordinarily take a semicolon or other point superior to the 
comma. The one exception often made in careful writing 
is in the case of yet. 

Spencer was rightly chary of random compliments, yet he 
declared that he should value Mill's agreement more than that 
of any other thinker. — John Morley, Critical Miscellanies, vol. 
IV, p. 149. 

The comma with any logical connective except yet is 
unsafe, though sometimes used with so by good writers. 
With nevertheless, Jtence, therefore, moreover, the points 
most often used are semicolons and periods. 

Subordinate Clauses of Main- Clause Rank 

A clause technically subordinate may be virtually a main 
clause. This is notably true of relative clauses (with rela- 
tive adverb or pronoun) at the end of the sentence. 

And in our modern practice a stop is often omissible at the 
end of a line because of the break, whereas it would be essential 
to clearness if the final word of one line and the first of the 
succeeding stood close together. — Wendell Phillips Garrison, 
"A Dissolving View of Punctuation," Atlantic Monthly, August, 
1906. 

2. As a series point, separating modifiers of the same noun, 
subjects of the same verb, or verbs belonging to the same 



Parenthetical Dashes 229 

may be used. A much more frequent style is to give the 
salutation a line to itself and point it with colon. 

Sometimes at the beginning of numbered sections or 
after the names of dramatis personae dashes are used in 
place of the more frequent periods: 

First — That the packers maintained stock yards in different 
cities in an effort to hold down prices paid producers. . . . 

Second — That there was an agreement in effect among the 
packers prorating the amount of live stock any one of them could 
buy in any market. 

Young wife (distractedly) — "Oh, John, John! that fat cook 

you sent up from the agency " Husband — "Yes, what's the 

matter?" "She's got wedged in the kitchenette, and I can't 
get her out!" — New York Evening Post, with credit to Judge. 

The most frequent point for preliminary matter is the 
comma. 

For very brief incidental parentheses curves are the 
lightest points; for light parentheses not so incidental as 
page references or the like, the most usual marks are com- 
mas. Dashes are seldom used by careful writers for light 
parenthetical matter, because emphatic points. They are 
useful rather for parenthetical clauses which would be too 
light with commas and too formal with curves, for emphatic 
parenthetical phrases, and for parenthetical groups con- 
taining commas. 

Again, if you hear a man talking overmuch of brotherly love 
and that sort of thing — I do not mean the hypocrite, but the 
sincere humanitarian whom you and I have met and had dealings 
with and could name — if you hear such a man talking overmuch 
of serving his fellows, you are pretty sure that here is a man 
who will be slippery or dishonourable in his personal trans- 
actions. — Paul Elmer More, Aristocracy and Justice, p. 143f. 

But we have a sure monitor of the will to act righteously in 



214 Modern Punctuation 

It is, in our view, the province of the Government to see to it 
that businesses are conducted honestly, and in a way compatible 
with good morals and the public welfare. — George Harvey, in the 
North American Review, January, 1918. 

The comma before the first and in the last example makes 
the members of the series more distinct. 

In the case of triads and longer series with a conjunc- 
tion between the last two members but not between the 
others, the customary textbook rule is to use the comma 
before the conjunction, according to this style: The Cen- 
tral Powers include Germany, Austria-Hungary, Bulgaria, 
and Turkey. But the ordinary though not unanimous 
practice in newspapers is to omit the last comma, a prac- 
tice followed also by some magazines and many books. 
The following sentence uses what may be called the 
newspaper style. 

But it is with equal earnestness to be hoped that both Govern- 
ment and people will regard these extraordinary measures as war 
measures, which ought to lapse with the war and to be replaced 
with a private control which will be just as honest, just as 
economical and just as efficient as that of the Government. — 
North American Review, January, 1918. 

Though the style with comma before the conjunction has 
the weight of textbook authority and of careful usage, the 
weight of majority practice — of good, bad, and indifferent 
work which gets into print — is apparently tending toward 
the no-comma style. 

The style with the full equipment of commas will give 
clear grouping, with the risk of awkward movement or 
misplaced emphasis. The newspaper style is not so safe 
in respect to clearness, and if carelessly handled is as 
clumsy in its way as the use of the comma may be in 
another way. 



Series Styles 215 

We have been requested to ask our passengers to throw news- 
papers, wrappers from chewing gum and candy and other refuse 
into the receptacles on Station platforms^ — Bulletin in a New 
York subway train. 

The effect is a coordination of candy with other refuse. 

In this sentence from Mr. L. A. Sherman's Analytics 
of Literature (p. ix), the no-comma style would be ruinous : 

We may weigh, compare, and accept or reject, but must first 
have impressions or judgments of our own, or we shall be deal- 
ing with unknown quantities. 

One thing is certain. In writing for a newspaper which 
uses the open style, as in food, ships and guns, the obvious 
thing is to avoid series structure with one conjunction 
whenever the open style would be awkward. Compositors 
who believe that a conjunction bars the comma believe it 
with all their hearts. 

A convenient way to avoid the difficulty — and lighten 
style — is to manage series informally without conjunctions. 

During all this period Metternich was the chief minister. His 
system, at war with human nature, at war with the modern spirit, 
rested upon a meddlesome police, upon elaborate espionage, 
upon a vigilant censorship of ideas. Censorship was applied to 
theaters, newspapers, books. The frontiers were guarded that 
foreign books of a liberal character might not slip in to corrupt. 
Political science and history practically disappeared as serious 
studies. Spies were everywhere, in government offices, in places 
of amusement, in educational institutions. Particularly did this 
government fear the universities, because it feared ideas. — Charles 
Downer Hazen, Modern European History, p. 258. 

If series conjunctions w r ere used in the second and third 
sentences of the passage, the style would be made heavy 
but no clearer. 



216 Modem Punctuation 

Comma at End of Series 

The end of a series may be pointed or open, according 
to requirements of clearness. The expression dull, aching, 
loneliness — quoted from Mr. Harold Bell Wright, who uses 
this pointing repeatedly — looks like a series of three mem- 
bers, instead of what it is, a noun modified by a series of 
two adjectives. The omission of the comma would make the 
expression conform to the style customary for so short a 
series, and make the meaning clear. Possibly the comma is 
meant as a rhythmical point after the Elizabethan manner. 

In short groups like careful, deliberate study, usage is 
clearly in favor of omitting the series-end comma. On the 
other hand, consistency yields to utility whenever point- 
ing is necessary to clearness. 

Different in kind from the printed symbols which denote the 
word, phrase, and sentence, any point creates a momentary re- 
straint of attention, a pause which may not be in the least percepti- 
ble, but in which the preceding meaning tends to repeat and enforce 
itself. — Constance M. Rourke, The Rationale of Punctuation. 

Or can we read between the lines of the war news, diplomatic 
disputations, threats and accusations, political wranglings and 
stories of hardship and cruelty that now fill our papers, any- 
thing that still justifies a hope that these bitter years of world 
sorrow are the darkness before the dawn of a better day for 
mankind?— H. G. Wells, What Is Coming? (p. 9). 

Suspended Series with Comma 

The emphatic device of series suspension, sometimes 
useful but often injurious to good movement, is employed 
in the following sentences : 

Besides, or rather contained within, a nation are many smaller 
crowds geographically defined. — Sir Martin Conway, The Crowd 
in Peace and War, p. 6. 



Commas for Series-Suspension 217 

Shaw is an isolated, not to say eccentric, figure, even for a 
Socialist. — Edwin E. Slosson, Six Major Prophets, p. 23. 

The approach of the present anniversary has revived to a 
notable extent interest in Calvin's dominating, but perplexing, 
personality. — Ephraim Emerton, in the New York Evening Post, 
July 10, 1909. 

The first sentence has what are called suspended particles. 
In the second there is suspension emphasizing the adjec- 
tives isolated and eccentric, with incidental suspension upon 
figure. In the* third sentence the suspension has an inju- 
rious effect on the cadence. 

With a series linked by the correlatives not and but 
there may or may not be pointing, the open style being 
more rapid and the comma style more emphatic. 

If there is any ground whatever for just criticism of the 
Governor's message of night before last it is not that he has 
exceeded his power or prerogatives, but rather that he has risked 
exceeding the time limit of opportunity by delaying so long the 
warning and the intimation. — The New York Sun (editorial), 
March 20, 1918. 

They must convince not an impartial jury but a jury packed 
against them. — From a New York newspaper. 

Wording which permits series-suspension commas may 
often be better without them. 

Elizabeth's first Parliament gave to the queen the power though 
not the title of supreme head of the English church. — James 
Harvey Robinson, Introduction to the History of Western 
Europe, p. 549. 

3. With modifying, preliminary, parenthetical, or after- 
thought matter, including appositives. For the options in 
the pointing of such elements, see pages 85ff. 



218 Modern Punctuation 

The comma is used singly or in pairs, according to the 
position of the group. Groups to be pointed (with commas 
or other marks) are in general those not required for struc- 
ture or definition. Expressions of indeterminate character 
are pointed or left open according to requirements of dis- 
tinctness and movement. 

Senator Henry Cabot Lodge, of Massachusetts. (Alternative 
style: Senator Henry Cabot Lodge of Massachusetts.) 

John Fox, Jr. (Alternative: John Fox Jr.) 

He [Lowell] began his career with some slight verses, sincere 
in thought and not unskilful, though technically stiff and hasty 
with the haste that betrays itself. — John Macy, The Spirit of 
American Literature, p. 189. 

Being human, he longs to see the results of his labors. — S. M. 
Crothers, The Pleasures of an Absentee Landlord, p. 29. 

The railroads, which had been vastly enlarged and enriched by 
the war, pushed everywhere now with marvelous rapidity; great 
industries, like the new oil industry, sprang into wealth and 
power. — Fred Lewis Pattee, A History of American Literature 
since 1870, p. 5. 

Adverbial modifiers are treated like adjective elements, 
but are more likely to be of indeterminate character, 
pointed or open according to the writer's purpose. 

An adverbial clause at the beginning of a sentence will 
usually but not always take the comma. 

Now that the bulk of straight matter is set on machines, 
employers find it to their advantage to have copy revised by the 
proofreader before setting. — Frank S. Henry, Printing for 
School and Shop, p. 50. 

An adverbial group following a conjunction at the begin- 
ning of sentence or clause may be open, or pointed at the 
end, or set off with two points. 



Comma with Adverbial Group 219 

With the shadow of its failure falling and Russia getting ready 
to advance, the Reichstag was instructed to pass bogus peace 
resolutions. But when Russia collapsed the resolutions were 
forgotten, and von Hindenburg was lifted to Valhalla. — New 
York Globe (editorial), March 16, 1918. 

But if the host of American radicals whom Jefferson led and 
whose spirit he so truly interpreted were forgetful of the prac- 
tical friendship of French Royalty in our hour of need, American 
conservatives, among whom Marshall was developing leadership, 
were also unmindful of the dark crimes against the people which, 
at an earlier period, had stained the Monarchy of France and 
gradually cast up the account that brought on the inevitable 
settlement of the Revolution. — A. J. Beveridge, Life of John 
Marshall, vol. II, p. 32. 

The style with two commas (Yet, under present condi- 
tions, I am uncertain) converts the modifier into a paren- 
thesis, and strongly affects the movement. 

Commas are often used to set off such preliminary expres- 
sions as vocatives, absolute phrases, exclamations, transi- 
tional phrases. 

Why, that is the same one. 

Yes, I agree with you. 

Oh, I see. 

On the other hand, Hebert the leader of the commune felt 
that the revolution was not yet complete. — James Harvey Robin- 
son, Introduction to the History of Western Europe, p. 589. 

Parenthetical matter enclosed by commas may range from 
a word to a clause. For the alternative points see pages 
106ff. 

In the same year, 1789, that the American Republic began its 
career under the forms of a National Government, the curtain 
rose in France on that tremendous drama which will forever 
engage the interest of mankind. — A. J. Beveridge, Life of John 
Marshall, vol. II, p. 2. 



220 Modern Punctuation 

The commas enclosing the date 1789 make »* an ordinary 
appositive rather than a light parenthesis. In this use, 
though hardly any other, commas are more obtrusive than 
curves. For parenthetical clauses like it is said or / have 
no doubt, commas are much lighter than curves, the curves 
being theoretically light but actually formal or self-con- 
scious. 

These things, alas, were an allegory. — G. K. Chesterton, The 
Crimes of England, p. 108. 

He blushed like a maid, bless his tender heart, and in his sweet 
confusion he knew that I knew it- — Vachel Lindsay, A Handy 
Guide for Beggars, p. 86. 

Perhaps, indeed, we did not have a democracy at all during the 
early decades of the nineteenth century. — William Allen White, 
The Old Order Changeth, p. 1. 

Matter which would be called preliminary or paren- 
thetical if at the beginning or embedded within the sen- 
tence may be called "afterthought" matter whenever 
placed at the end. Comma-pointed afterthoughts may be 
clause tags, like it is said, or modifiers. Afterthoughts 
are emphatic by both position and suspension. 

In the following sentences the afterthought elements 
are technically appositives or modifiers. 

But Hawthorne, fortunately, was a mildly irreverent man, 
charmed by the colours of things, and somewhat sceptical of the 
intense beliefs of his contemporaries. — John Macy, The Spirit 
of American Literature, p. 84. 

Mrs. Ballinger is one of the ladies who pursue Culture in bands, 
as though it were dangerous to meet alone. — Edith Wharton, 
Xingu, p. 3. 

4. Before a quotation, or to mark the interruption or 
resumption of a quotation. For the omission of points and 



Comma with Quotation 221 

the use of points other than the comma, see pages 152ff., 
154f. 

The following are typical cases with the comma : 

It asked eagerly of every foreign visitor, "And what do you 
think of us?" and when the answer, as in the case of Moore or 
Marryat or Dickens, was critical, it flew into a passion. — Fred 
Lewis Pattee, A History of American Literature since 1870, p. 8. 

"Get hold of a dramatic American theme," he counsels Taylor, 
"merely for policy's sake. The people want Neo- Americanism ; 
we must adopt l^heir system and elevate it." — lb., p. 18. 

Quoted phrases in series may be treated like other mem- 
bers of series. In the following case commas are the natural 
points to use : 

His fondness for the big or unusual words and phrases 
"empyrean," "nadir," "capriccio," "cui bono," "coup d'etat," 
shows that he has been to a feast of languages and stolen the 
scraps. — Cited in Theodore L. De Vinne's Correct Composition, 
p. 215. 

Before a quotation the comma is lighter and less formal 
than the colon. If the quotation is short and not formally 
heralded, the comma is usually appropriate. 

5. For special grouping. The comma is sometimes used 
for suspension or clearness even when the structural rela- 
tion is close, as between subject and verb or between verb 
and complement. 

The end of a long series subject is often marked by the 
comma without awkwardness; but otherwise a comma 
between subject and verb is likely to be felt as a piece of 
formality. If a comma is needed for clearness, the fact may 
suggest need of revision. 

That the undertone of quiet confidence in the outcome of the 
European battle — which was so notable an incident of last week's 



222 Modern Punctuation 

financial markets — should have been in evidence again to-day, 
was not surprising, in the light of the news since Saturday. — New 
York Evening Post, April 1, 1918. 

The first comma is necessary only because the subject is 
overelaborate. 

According to a textbook rule still current the infinitive- 
phrase subject of the following sentence should end with a 
comma. As a matter of fact a comma would be worse than 
useless. 

To indulge in elaborate and pompous rhetorical flourishes in 
the last paragraphs is likely to be as painful to the reader as 
it is for a hostess to have a caller stand in the doorway on a cold 
winter day for several minutes after she should have taken her 
leave. — Percy H. Boynton, Principles of Composition, p. 45. 

In the following sentence the comma separates the verb 
from its preceding object: 

The harmony which the old religion had failed to establish in 
space and in Nature, the new sought to establish in history and in 
time. — George Santayana, Poetry and Religion, p. 74. 



The "Ellipsis" Comma 

For the sake of rapidity, modern writing omits many 
verbs which an elder generation would have held useful. 

His views may have been one-sided, his protest against con- 
vention exaggerated, his emphasizing of the trivial itself a man- 
nerism. — T. S. Omond, The Romantic Triumph, p. 26. 

The two Balkan wars cost heavily in human life and in treasure. 
Turkey and Bulgaria each lost over 150,000 in killed and wounded, 
Servia over 70,000, Greece nearly as many, little Montenegro 
over 10,000. — Charles Downer Hazen, Modern European History, 
p. 606. 



Comma for "Ellipsis" 223 

The tradition that ellipsis of the verb requires to be 
acknowledged with a comma is fundamentally wrong. In 
the sentences from Mr. Omond and Mr. Hazen, commas 
would be not merely unnecessary but ruinous. The old 
rule is properly associated with sentences of the following 
kind, the specimen being borrowed from a manual of punc- 
tuation : 

The benevolent man is esteemed; the pernicious, condemned. 

In many cases of what is called ellipsis of the verb, the 
comma is unnecessary. In most cases where useful, the 
comma is merely a grouping signal. 

For the sake of clearness, commas may be used between 
dates or names. In May 7, 1915, or Louisville, Kentucky, 
or 150,000, and in such a sentence as In chapter 3, 30 
errors have been detected, the commas are used for clear 
grouping, not to acknowledge ellipsis. The date style on 
the 10th December 1623, not uncommon in British books, 
is clear without a comma. 

In this sentence a comma is needed for clearness, because 
without it the adverb before might be mistaken for a con- 
junction : 

But not long before, the flogging of women by an Austrian 
general led to that officer being thrashed in the streets of London 
by Barclay and Perkins' draymen. — G. K. Chesterton, The 
Appetite of Tyranny, p. 18. 

In the sentence following, the comma is a suspensive 
mark making still an emphatic preliminary : 

Still, his contribution has been for the most part a negative 
one. — Barrett H. Clark, The British and American Drama of 
To-day, p. 77. 



224 Modern Punctuation 

6. The comma is often used to reinforce the dash, the 
combination being used singly or in pairs. An account of 
this combination is given on page 233 below. 

7. Miscellaneous and mechanical uses. Before the abbre- 
viation etc. the comma is specified by some authorities 
as being always necessary. So general a rule is illogical, 
but has the weight of usage. 

After the expressions e. g., i. e., s. v., a comma is regu- 
larly used in some offices ; but the open style has at least an 
equal weight of authoritj^, besides being lighter and more 
logical. The matter following such an expression is ordi- 
narily in restrictive apposition. 

The use of the comma as a paragraph point, similar to 
the paragraph semicolon (see page 54), is very infrequent, 
as it should be. Where matter is put into outline form the 
usual division mark is the period. 

The Comma with Other Points 

The comma rarely combines with other points except 
curves, brackets, the dash, and quote marks. For its use 
with the dash see page 233 below ; for comma with curves (the 
same rule holding for comma with brackets), see page 238. 

The usual American rule for the comma with an end- 
quote is to let the comma precede under all circumstances ; 
but there are frequent deviations from this rule either 
intended or inadvertent. Where the comma occurs with 
a single quote, some of the best printers prefer to arrange 
the points according to the meaning. Others prefer the 
fixed order, with the comma first. (See pages 156, 159f.) 

. VII. The Dash 

The name dash when used without qualification means in 
this chapter, as above, the ordinary em dash. In addition 



The Nature of the Dash 225 

to the em dash printers have the en dash and dashes of 
two-em and three-em length. Long dashes are rare in text 
matter save for ellipsis or broken sentences. 

The dash has been described as the interruption, the 
mark of abruptness, the sob, the stammer, the mark of 
unutterable emotion, and the mark of ignorance. The last 
name records the fact that many mistake the dash for a 
general-utility mark to be requisitioned on all occasions. 
In respect to frequency the dash is one of the first four 
points in ordinary text matter, the other three being comma, 
period, semicolon. Dean Alford's opinion that the dash 
"should never be admitted if it can be helped" is extreme, 
like some of his other opinions. 

The dash is an abrupt or emphatic mark, character- 
istically employed to mark interruption, suspension, or 
sudden turn. It is nearer akin to the comma than to any 
other of the marks, being used singly or in pairs, between 
members either coordinate or of different rank, and with 
a variety of constructions. But unlike the comma it is a 
strong point, with a characteristic flavor in spite of its 
versatility. 

The dash, either singly or in pairs, and often reinforced 
with the comma, is employed for the following uses : 

1. To group words for special emphasis, or to indicate 
hesitation, interruption, incompletion, suspension or release 
of suspension, shift of structure, or emphatic repetition. 

The dash as a mark of incompletion may be used as a 
sentence point, or as a means of paragraph suspension. 

"My young friends," he says, "I hope and trust that my words 
may be the means of saving you from much of the heartache 
and sorrow of this world. When I was young — " — Meredith 
Nicholson, The Provincial American and Other Papers, p. 93. 

Article 46 reads like a ghastly satire. It provides that in occu- 



226 Modern Punctuation 

pied territories, such as Germany and her allies now hold in 
Belgium, France, Poland, Serbia, Rumania, and Montenegro — 

Family honor and rights, the lives of persons, and private 
property, as well as religious convictions and practice, must be 
respected. Private property cannot be confiscated. 

The preceding example is from the New York Times of 
February 11, 1918, the suspended paragraph being a quota- 
tion in reduced type. 

In the following examples the dash is a mark of suspen- 
sion or shift within the limits of the sentence : 

After these — that brace of reprobates, Byron and Shelley. — A. 
E. Hancock, John Keats, p. 5. 

The patriarchs from Adam down, the kings and prophets, the 
creation, Eden, the deluge, the deliverance out of Egypt, the 
thunders and the law of Sinai, the temple, the exile — all this and 
much more that fills the Bible was a rich fund, a familiar tra- 
dition living in the Church, on which Dante could draw, as he 
drew at the same time from the parallel classic tradition which 
he also inherited. — George Santayana, Three Philosophical Poets, 
p. 83. 

The dash in the last sentence, technically an appositive 
point, is used to effect a shift of structure. In the follow- 
ing sentence the dash marks a case of repetition with 
addition : 

Why should not the workers have the privilege for their sons 
that belongs by mere good fortune to the wealthier classes — the 
privilege of a training that will give them greater health, greater 
knowledge and technical skill, better habits, more self-respect. 
and the power as well as the inclination to defend their country 
if need be? — John Galsworthy, A Sheaf, p. 347. 

2. To mark the ellipsis of a word or less than a word. 
for concealment or delicacy either actual or formal. The 



Compounding and Series Dash 227 

concealment dash is used in the form 3Ir. M for Mr. 

Morley. The euphemistic dash, presumably without any 
genuine attempt at concealment, is used in d — n or in 
What the d — I do you mean? The length of the ellipsis 
dash is governed by office rules. 

3. As a compounding point, usually with the effect of 
suggesting an appositive relation between clauses or else 
an unexpected turn of thought. 

Notified that the Kaiser is to say something pathetic and his- 
toric at 1:30 P. »M. on a hillock near Queant, to the west of 
Cambrai, Mr. Rosner repairs thither. He finds the Kaiser in the 
correct attitude, looking mournfully down upon the battlefield, 
his staff disposed properly, some at L., some at R., some at L. 
U. E., one alongside him — necessarily, for the Kaiser cannot 
utter the historic and pathetic saying unless he has somebody 
to utter it to.— New York Times (editorial), May 23, 1918. 

Before the clause link in the second sentence the point is 
a comma ; but the actual clause break is made by the dash. 
In the following sentence the second clause is in apposition 
with the first. 

The answer came to me in a flash as I turned away from 
Fuller Place, — Clark's field no longer existed. — Robert Herrick, 
Clark's Field, p. 6. 

4. As a series point, usually with the effect of empha- 
sizing the members sharply. The series dash commonly 
suggests an appositive or parenthetical relation. 

A young woman ot" social prominence printed some verses in 
an Indianapolis newspaper, and one of her acquaintances, when 
asked for his opinion of them, said they were creditable and ought 
to be set to music — and played as an instrumental piece! — 
Meredith Nicholson, The Provincial American and Other Papers, 
p. 81. 



228 Modern Punctuation 

In the sentence cited from Mr. Nicholson the dash marks 
an unexpected turn in the series, with the effect of empha- 
sizing the succeeding clause. In the following sentence, 
from an editorial in the North American Review (February, 
1918), the dashes enclose a group in suspended or paren- 
thetical series: 

When one government succeeds another, by revolution or other- 
wise, it assumes all the powers of its predecessor, and it should — 
in our antiquated view, it must — equally incur all its predeces- 
sor's responsibilities, diplomatic and pecuniary. 

At the end of a series in a periodic sentence the dash 
often serves to mark the turning point in the sentence, just 
before the release of suspension. Examples of this use, 
which is a mixture of appositional with series and suspen- 
sion pointing, are given on pages 226 and 230. To group 
a series of modifiers the dash is often the most conven- 
ient point. Examples are given in the following division 
of this section. 

5. To set off preliminary, parenthetical, or afterthought 
matter, and also modifiers, including appositives. For the 
sum of these uses the principal other mark is the comma ; 
but for parenthetical matter curves are often the nearest 
alternatives, and in cases of emphatic apposition there is 
often difficulty in deciding between dash and colon. 

For preliminary matter: 

Note to all the editors — "What did you play up that dash 
story for? . . ." — Don C. Seitz, Training for the Newspaper 
Trade, p. 57f. [The word dash is a euphemism for which an 
ellipsis dash or the word blank or blanked might be substituted.] 

After salutations of letters ''run in" (in the same para- 
graph with following matter) a dash or comma with dash 



The Nature of the Comma 205 

The combination of semicolon with dash may be regarded 
as a strengthened form of the semicolon. It is no longer 
common. 

VI. The Comma 

The comma is the least specialized of all points and 
therefore the most elusive. Generally speaking, it is the 
lightest mark in cases of (1) compounding, (2) series, with 
or without suspension, (3) preliminary, parenthetical, and 
afterthought matter, and modifiers, (4) the interruption or 
resumption of quotations, and (5) suspension. The comma 
is also used for what is reputed to be ellipsis. In its various 
uses the comma competes with the sentence points, the 
colon, the semicolon, the dash, and curves. In a particular 
case there may be no reasonable doubt as to the choice; 
but a given form and length of words may admit of a choice 
which can be made only in the light of such considerations 
as the importance of the group in the paragraph. 

Unlike the period, question mark, exclamation point, 
colon, semicolon, dash, curves, and brackets, the comma has 
no clear special quality save for its comparative lightness. 
It is not a terminal point like the period, or a specialized 
coordinating mark like the semicolon, or an anticipatory 
point like the colon. Even the dash, which is nearest the 
comma in variety of uses, has a characteristic quality, and 
all the points except the dash have a much more limited 
number of uses. The comma may be used singly or in 
pairs; it may be either coordinating or subordinating; it 
may set off matter either parenthetical or structurally essen- 
tial; it may serve merely to reinforce the dash; it may 
bound a group for emphasis or clearness where the syn- 
tactical relation is very close. Being used for many pur- 
poses and several times oftener than any other point save 
the period, the comma has no special and constant flavor. 



230 Modern Punctuation 

the present feeling of happiness or misery, and we have a hope — 
a divine illusion it may be, for it has never among men been 
verified by experience — that in some way and at some time 
happiness and pleasure shall be completely reconciled by Nature, 
who, by mysterious deviations beyond our mortal ken, is herself 
also a servant of the law of justice. — lb., p. 115f. 

In each of these there is a comma or pair of commas within 
the group enclosed by the dashes. In the following sen- 
tence, from page 5 of the same book, the dashes enclose a 
parenthetical appositive group: 

Plato wrestled with it when he undertook to outline the ideal 
republic, and many of his pages on the range of government 
through its five forms — aristocracy, timocracy, oligarchy, demo- 
cracy, and tyranny — sound as if he had been reading yesterday's 
newspapers of London and New York. 

This is one of the most common uses of the dash. 

The afterthought dash is employed to set off appositives, 
adjective or adverb groups, or other matter, the dash and 
the position at the end of the sentence giving such after- 
thoughts a considerable degree of emphasis. 

The opposition to the theater by the city was doubtless in part 
due to moral and religious grounds, but perhaps in larger part 
to direct social causes, — to the dangers that the theaters offered 
for rioting, fire, and the spread of the plague. — A. H. Thorndike, 
Shakespeare's Theater, p. 35. 

England and the allies had laid the Corsican ghost, restored 
monarchy in France, rekindled the aura that invests a king. 
History was free once more to pursue the even tenor of her way. 
Liberty, Equality, Fraternity, — these would be recorded, in a 
footnote, as an aberration of the human brain. — A. E. Hancock, 
John Keats, p. 2. 

In each of these examples the dash (with comma in each 
case, as it happens) is an appositive point, marking in the 



The Dash with Other Points 231 

second example a shift of structure with release of sus- 
pension. In the following passage the dash sets off an 
emphatic modifier: 

A Dutch artist is said to have taken a cow grazing in a field 
as the "fixed point" in his landscape — with consequences to his 
perspective which may be imagined. The writer on the "laws" 
of punctuation is in much the same predicament. — Wendell Phil- 
lips Garrison, "A Dissolving View of Punctuation," Atlantic 
Monthly, August, 1906. 

6. The dash has semi-mechanical uses as a repetition 
sign or ditto mark in catalogue work, bibliographies and 
the like, and between an extract and the name of the 
author or journal to which credit is given. 

7. The en dash in typographical work — the hyphen 
character being the nearest equivalent in typewriting — 
is used between dates or numbers, between names which are 
not single orthographic units, sometimes in compound 
words set in capitals. 

Pages 35-55. 
April 20-26, 1918. 

The New York-Philadelphia trains. [But Boston-Hartford ex- 
press with hyphen.] 

The Dash with Other Points 

Certain publishers of high standing use the combination 
of colon with dash before quotations separately para- 
graphed, and many publications make considerable use of 
comma with dash. On the other hand there is a strong 
and apparently growing weight of opinion against most 
combinations with the dash in text matter. The Style Book 
of Typographical Practice compiled by Mr. Douglas C. 



232 Modern Punctuation 

McMurtrie and used by the Columbia University Printing 
Office says categorically : ' ' The dash . . . cannot properly 
be combined with other punctuation. ' ' Mr. F. Horace 
Teall, in his Punctuation, with Chapters on Hyphenization, 
is equally emphatic: "Asa matter of fact, the dash [with 
colon] adds nothing but an unsightly mark on the page." 
"No writer . . . has stated a sufficient reason for using 
a dash and any other point together." The Manual of 
Style of the University of Chicago Press (fifth edition, 
page 68) says, "A dash should ordinarily not be used with 
any other point, except a period." These opinions are 
recent, except Mr. Teall 's, and of high authority. That of 
Mr. Teall, cited from a work with copyright date 1897, is 
evidence that the objection to the reinforced or reinforcing 
dash is no novelty. 

The combination of period and dash is used for the most 
part (1) between a side-head and the first word follow- 
ing, (2) between an extract and the name of the work or 
author, (3) to mark a break within a paragraph or to 
indicate a paragraph where space must be saved. After 
side-heads the period is often used without the dash. The 
mid-paragraph dash, once common, is infrequent now in 
ordinary matter. 

The dash is rarely used before or after a terminal ques- 
tion or exclamation mark. But either may occur at the 
end of a parenthetical group between dashes. 

Yet in the history of France alluded to above, the description 
of the feudal system scarcely extends beyond dungeons, — "Oh 
how damp, dark, and cold!"— knee clamps and thumbscrews — 
James Harvey Robinson, The New History, p. 11. 

The dash sometimes occurs after but seldom before the 
second of a pair of curves, not often after a semicolon, 
more frequently after colon or comma. 



Combinations ivith the Dash 233 

The combination colon with dash is sometimes used before 
an appositive or quotation which follows in the same para- 
graph, but much oftener before a paragraph break, as 
after the Dear Sir of a letter or after words introducing an 
extract. The utility of the dash is indiscernible. 

For the union of comma with dash there have been rules 
admirable for their ingenuity if for nothing else. The 
fact is that the dash can do any work done by the comma 
and dash together, except only that the combination seems 
more emphatic* A series parenthesis containing commas 
may be enclosed between dashes or between commas with 
dashes; an emphatic afterthought with or without commas 
can be suspended by either the single or the reinforced 
dash; compounding can be managed with the dash alone 
or with the dash reinforced by preceding comma. There 
may be arbitrary distinctions between the dash and the 
reinforced dash, but no such distinction is generally valid 
or indeed clearly understood, except for a supposed dif- 
ference in strength. 

Very rarely a parenthesis has a dash at the beginning 
and a comma with dash at the end. This arrangement is 
likely to seem eccentric, whatever the apparent logical 
justification. As the dash is not limited to parenthetical 
work as curves are limited, the second dash of a pair may 
do two kinds of work at the same time. 

The dash may either precede or follow an end quote, ac- 
cording to circumstances. 

"Welcome to Mexico P* he said. 

"Could you tell me " I continued. 

"Welcome to our sunny Mexico!" he repeated — "our beautiful, 
glorious Mexico. Her heart throbs at the sight of you." — Ste- 
phen Leacock, Further Foolishness, p. 67f. 



234 Modern Punctuation 

VIII. Curves 

The name parenthesis happens to be the most convenient 
term for an intermediate expression which might be omitted 
without dislocation of structure. For this reason and be- 
cause the most frequent parenthetical marks are commas, 
the term parentheses for a particular pair of marks may 
be misleading. The name curves, already current, has 
therefore been used in this book. 

In the plainest kinds of prose, curves are used mainly for 
two purposes: (1) to enclose numbers or letters, as in 
this sentence, enumerating the members of a series, (2) 
to enclose incidental explanatory matter, page references, 
or descriptive matter which other points would emphasize 
too much or not distinguish clearlj r from matter in the 
immediate context. But in the more elaborate or literary 
types of prose, curves have a less restricted use. They 
may enclose sentences, even passages of some length ; within 
the sentence they may set off parentheses of considerable 
length and complexity. 

Excessive use of curves may give an air of self-conscious- 
ness, of formality, of quaintness where quaintness is vanity. 
Curves are infrequent in good untechnical writing. 

When curves enclose explanation made necessary by poor 
writing, they give the impression of laziness. 

John said that he (James) expected to come in the early after- 
noon. 

Curves are employed, ofte^i as alternative to commas 
or dashes, for the following uses : 

1. To enclose matter which is to be taken as actually or 
in form parenthetical. 

The following sentences illustrate the lighter uses of 
curves for incidental parentheses : 



Groups within Curves 235 

Seldom is a newspaper paragraph longer than twenty lines, 
or about 150 words; the conservative Springfield (Mass.) Repub- 
lican sets a limit of 400 words. — C. G. Ross, The Writing of 
News, p. 184. 

Harrison was defeated for governor by a farmer (1876), in 
a heated campaign, in which "Kid-Gloved Harrison" was held up 
to derision by the adherents of "Blue- Jeans' Williams." — Mere- 
dith Nicholson, The Provincial American and Other Papers, 
p. 74f. 

The second one, which has just appeared — "Face to Face with 
Kaiserism" (Doran: $2 net) — contains nothing on official affairs 
to make the reader sit up in startled amazement, as did the stories 
of the Kaiser's personal telegram to President Wilson, and his re- 
mark about no post-bellum nonsense from America. — New York 
Evening Post, April 17, 1918. 

The following sentences illustrate the use of curves for 
matter less incidental: 

With the exception of "Griffith Davenport" (which was very 
uneven in quality) these plays were accepted by the public; and, 
having accepted them, the public could not retreat into the past, 
nor could the playwright. — Walter Prichard Eaton, The American 
Stage of To-day, p. 10. 

Men who go north and meet the woods Indian still unspoiled 
(I am thinking especially of one sympathetic and shrewd ex- 
plorer) tell us that they find the living brother of Cooper's 
bronze hero, dignified, of high honor, stoical and eloquent. — 
John Macy, The Spirit of American Literature, p. 42. 

The first contains a parenthetical subordinate clause, the 
second a parenthetical main clause. 

Sometimes curves enclose a modifier which appears to be 
an integral part of the structure : "despite his (supposedly) 
low rank," "the (somewhat obscure) meaning of his 
words." This use of curves is infrequent but sometimes 
convenient. 

The following sentence, from the article Parenthesis in 



236 Modern Punctuation 

the Encyclopaedia Britannica (eleventh edition), illustrates 
the blending of series and parenthesis. 

The grammatical term denoting the insertion (and so also 
the signs for such insertion) of a word, phrase or sentence be- 
tween other words or in another sentence, without interfering 
with the construction, and serving a qualifying, explanatory or 
supplementary purpose. 

Afterthoughts are sometimes enclosed in curves, but are 
more usually pointed with comma or dash. The contradic- 
tion between the emphatic position of such groups and the 
apparently light pointing may explain the infrequency of 
curves for terminal groups. 

There has been evidence in several American papers that 
have reached me recently of a disposition to get ahead with 
Russia and cut out the Germans (and incidentally the British). — 
H. G. Wells, What Is Coming? (p. 236). 

For the pointing of afterthoughts, see especially pages 
114ff. 

A parenthetical group may be set as a sentence in curves. 

Put the period inside the quotation marks. (This is a rule 
without exception.) — Rule of the University of Chicago Press. 

An extension of the parenthetical sentence is the para- 
graph, seldom a longer passage, in curves. 

Credits are sometimes enclosed in curves instead of being 
set off with the dash. 

"It can be only through desire and constant experiment that 
skill in writing is acquired." (William Tenney Brewster.) 

2. Curves are often employed to enclose division letters 
or numerals, especially division numbers within a para- 
graph. 



Curves with Other Points 237 

When you read a book there are only three things of which 
you may be conscious: (1) The significance of the words, which 
is inseparably bound up with the thought. (2) The look of the 
printed words on the page — I do not suppose that anybody reads 
any author for the visual beauty of the words on the page. 
(3) The sound of the words, either actually uttered or imagined 
by the brain to be uttered. — Arnold Bennett, Literary Taste, p. 52. 

A number at the beginning of a paragraph, belonging to 
the whole paragraph, is usually pointed with the period. 

A single right-hand curve is sometimes used after a divi- 
sion number or letter, but rarely except in tabulated out- 
lines. 

3. Curves are sometimes used to enclose editorial inter- 
polations, especially the commentary sic, which calls atten- 
tion to a peculiarity or a slip in quoted matter. If the con- 
text clearly shows the parenthesis to be an interpolation, 
curves are not seriously objectionable. Otherwise the writer 
should use brackets or manage his comments otherwise 
than by interpolation. 

Curves are infrequently used to enclose, doubtful or 
alternative letters, as when one writes the strai(gh)t and 
narrow way, the assessor (s) — in the former case pointing 
out the proper spelling of the word, in the latter indicating 
doubt whether assessor should be written plural. 

Curves with Other Points 

The second curve follows a sentence point only when the 
whole sentence, or more than a sentence, is parenthetical. 
If the curves merely enclose a group at the end of a sen- 
tence, the terminal point follows the curve. 

"Edsall, do you remember Clark's Field?" (For Edsall had 
once lived in Alton, though not in my part of the town.) — Robert 
Herrick, Clark's Field, p. 12. 



238 Modem Punctuation, 

The rule has been quoted from The Writer's Desk Booh 
(page 13). 

According to the usual American practice, comma, colon, 
and semicolon regularly follow the second curve. 

As Mr. Pearsall Smith points out (The English Language, 
Chap. V), our standard writers were once innovators in language. 
— William Tenney Brewster, Writing English Prose, p. 155. 

When I was a child my mother would not permit me to read 
novels on Sunday; and yet, some thirty years after that period, 
I received a letter from a woman who was very old, a bed-ridden 
invalid, and the widow of a Baptist minister (the three quali- 
fications are not arranged as a climax) ; she wrote, "Thank the 
Lord for novels!" — William Lyon Phelps, The Advance of the 
English Novel, p. 10. 

Like the comma or semicolon, the dash may follow a second 
curve. 

Why, I've seen him send out letters (I wouldn't say this to any 
one outside, of course, and I wouldn't like to have it repeated) — 
letters with, .actually, mistakes in English. Think of it, in 
English! Ask his stenographer. — Stephen Leacock, Further 
Foolishness, p. 186. 

A quote mark may either precede or follow a second 
curve, according to circumstances : 

The volume cited ("Aristocracy and Justice") is by Mr. Paul 
Elmer More. 

The sentence is in this form : "There was much talk of a service 
in Westminster Abbey, the Prime Minister approved of it and 
the Dean was quite willing there should be one, providing the 
Chapter consented (which was a matter of course)." 

Matter within curves may contain series or other point- 
ing ; but with the exception of quote marks, question marks, 
or interrogation points, there is seldom a punctuation mark 



Brackets for Interpolation 239 

before the second of a pair of curves. And most paren- 
theses ending with exclamation or question marks are 
enclosed between dashes. 

IX. Brackets 

In ordinary text brackets are almost invariably editorial 
points, enclosing matter interpolated in an extract by 
way of substitution, explanation, or comment. The use of 
brackets to enclose secondary parenthesis within curves is 
rare except in v technical matter. Few typewriters are 
equipped with bracket characters. 

1. The bracketed interpolation may be a word, a ques- 
tion or exclamation mark, or a passage of some length. 

"My son," cries the Savoyard curate, "keep your soul always 
in a state to desire that there may be a God, and you will never 
doubt it [this sounds much like the German Kant]. . . ." — P. M. 
Buck, Jr., Social Forces in Modern Literature, p. 82. 

Brackets for substitution are likely to be awkward. If 
one quotes a rule in the form "The comma is required 
before not, when introducing an antithetical clause," with 
a substitution for the misleading "required," the effect is 
awkward : 

"The comma is [permissible] before not, when introducing an 
antithetical clause." 

As the substituted word is structurally essential, the point- 
ing is clumsy. 

The parenthetical commentary sic, set either roman or 
italic, is sometimes enclosed in curves, sometimes in 
brackets. Brackets are the logical marks for the purpose. 
A question or exclamation mark interpolated in an extract 
by way of query or expression of surprise is properly 
bracketed. 



240 Modern Punctuation 

2. In texts of uncertain authority, brackets are used to 
enclose letters, words, even punctuation marks, which the 
editor regards as interpolated or conjectural. 

3. Brackets may enclose a parenthesis within paren- 
thetical matter. This arrangement is uncommon except in 
legal or other technical matter. 

Bowman Act (22 Stat. L., ch. 4, § [or sec] 4, p. 50). — Court 
of Claims style, Government Printing Office. 

Within curves in ordinary text matter, a secondary paren- 
thesis may be set off with commas. 

4. Brackets are rarely used to enclose division numbers 
belonging to a series set as a solid paragraph. For this 
purpose curves are much oftener used, as in the paragraph 
just below. 

5. A single bracket may be used (1) to indicate a run- 
over of a Hne set above or below the line to save space, (2) 
to set off a credit from an extract. These uses are rare or 
special. 

Brackets used with other points follow as a rule the 
same order as curves. 



CHAPTER IX 
SOME TYPES OF PUNCTUATION 

The purpose of this chapter is to point out some facts 
about the frequency of punctuation marks in representa- 
tive current books and periodicals. 

The percentages given in the tables below are not offered 
as the result of exhaustive or even extensive investigation. 
They are intended merely to give definite information 
within the limits noted. But they are sufficient to throw 
light on certain resemblances or differences of style, and to 
show in a measure the frequency in which certain points 
are likely to be useful. 

Deductions from these figures should be made with cau- 
tion. The tone and movement of composition are affected 
not merely by the points here listed but also by paragraph- 
ing, capitals, italic, hyphens, even apostrophes. The weight 
and movement of style depend in large part also on the 
frequency of finite verbs, the frequency and kind of con- 
nectives, the frequency and kinds of relative clauses. A 
useful laboratory test of an individual's written style 
would involve much more than the counting of punctuation 
marks. Yet the mere proportion of terminal to other points 
may be sufficient to make clear the need of simplifying 
sentence structure. Or the fact that a writer uses ten dashes 
to ninety of all other structural points put together raises 
the presumption that his style should be either more care- 
ful or more temperate. 

In all the estimates given, the following classes of points 
are omitted : 

241 



242 Modern Punctuation 

1. Hyphens, apostrophes, en dashes (as in the expression 1917- 
1918), commas in numerals (as in 100,000), and abbreviation 
periods, except where terminal duty is performed by the same 
period. 

2. Quote marks. 

3. Points within extracts, except points which mark the termi- 
nation or interruption of the extract. For example, in the fol- 
lowing sentence the commas after bearer and Jones and the period 
after laurel are not counted. 

It seems that Colley Cibber, when he thought he was dying, wrote to the 
Prime Minister, "recommending the bearer, Mr. Henry Jones, for the vacant 
laurel. Lord Chesterfield will tell vou more of him." 



Editorial brackets and ellipsis periods belong to extracts, 
and therefore are not counted. Brackets sometimes occur 
in original matter, but not in the text of the passages 
cited. 

Footnotes and headings of all kinds, including side-heads, 
are excluded from the estimate. 

Colons which are not clearly anticipatory are listed as 
"other colons." Every reinforcing combination (comma 
with dash, colon with dash, period with dash, or group of 
suspension periods with a full stop) is listed as one point; 
but points occurring merely in juxtaposition, as question 
marks preceding parenthetical points, are counted sep- 
arately . 

For a list of the passages on which the first three tables 
are based, see the end of the chapter. 

Table A, "Terminal and Other Points," shows the pro- 
portion of terminal to other points in representative pas- 
sages from ten American periodicals and ten individual 
writers. Carlyle, Pater, and Emerson are included for 
the sake of comparison with contemporary authors. The 
periodicals range from conservative to sensational. 

The terminal points are period, question mark, exclama- 



Terminal and Other Points 



243 







aanaiues 


I+1++++ +I+1+++I+I++ 


1 


+ 1 


1 + 


i 




jarf 


(M CONH (D COCvJCO^CCThii— fTt< t>. U3 (N «© T* 00 00 CT> 






aSujarav 


OOOW^^fflO C2030000NOi0^^fOWMi-iF-(HOOO>0 






t>l ;o ■<* co co co co (N*cJcJNc4(Neic4©Jc<ie4cJoie<icac4rHi-i 






C a -2 


i-H -* OS <N t*- 00 Tf MNN^^NNOThOOlOON^HaaiO 






* "3 ° 


^IQCOHOWN »lOTj*Tj*e0000200NNNWM(N'H<ON 






afc H 


00 00 t>. t- t>- «D CO eOCO«OCO«©.«0«©lOiC2»OiOO»«»00»©Tj<CO 








OS CO >— " GO CO <N CO NWW©On00O<0Nl0Oei5O0iHHO 






IB^OX 


HphIN(MNCOM CO CO CO CO CO CO CO T* ■<*< T* Tt< T* ^ rti Tf Tt< U5 co 


~. 


qsBa 








qjiM uoi} 






-BaiBIOXg 






qsBa 

q;jM 


~ : : : : : : :::::::::::::::::: 


o 




noiisanft 




qsBa 




i s 


02 


U^IM 


CO-CO'' -- • • • CO • • • • • 


s * 

w o 


■M 


pouaj 




Ph 






W 02 




+• ' • I 






OS 










O o 


a 


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fc o 








qsBa 


::::::: ::::: °1 ::::::::::: : 


juioj nop 


«H©« -NN »T5 CO CO © •<HOiiNWlOeO<D>OHN'^^ 






-Btaepxa 






JiaBiv 




03 




nopsanft 


.-f r-H Tt< <N ft ft -h - 1 CQ (M <M — 1 (N <M 


| 


poi-iaj 


■-! o co eg a> cn> oo os © <n co <n ^ °°. o ft eo © oo r-i <e io © -* co 


c 




CO^t^t>lo6rjii-H OCgTj5cgido6^C:i^COC5W5lOld«do50 


o 






h hhnn(Mco eocoeocococo^eoT^T^cocoTfTfT^-^rttco 


5i 












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• o 


: § : 












60 

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•to 

09 

to «. 
















.«©►». 








a 


ft- 






















a 

't- 
is 
P- 

F- 

a 


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a 

I 

> 
F 


-r .£-*-> . § b a> 


a 

o 

02 


O +S 

"t 3 £ &5 

tn a» si a 


» s 


1 

1 


1 


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° rC 


02 








£ 


H 


£ 


rig- 5 


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:fe 


12 


fe 


52 


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OO 



244 Modern Punctuation 

tion, dash, suspension points, and combinations of ordinary 
terminal marks with dash or suspension points. The colon 
at the end of a paragraph has not been counted here as a 
terminal point, being felt rather as a mark of incompletion 
suspending the words which follow. 

A high terminal-point percentage means a small average 
number of points per sentence. A low percentage means 
usually a more elaborate structure, or at any rate a more 
elaborate pointing. In the Carlyle passage, for example, the 
terminal-point percentage is 23.1 ; the average number of 
points per sentence is almost 4.33. In the passage from Mr. 
Crothers the terminal points reach the high percentage of 
63, and the average number of points per sentence is 
below 1.59. 

The percentages for the North American Review, the 
Nation, the New Republic, the Saturday Evening Post, and 
the six newspapers range from 29.3 to 53.1, the mean per- 
centage being 42.71. For the ten periodicals the average 
number of points per sentence is a little over 2.34. If the 
North American Review and the Christian Science Monitor 
are omitted, the sentence-point average is about 45.5, 
and the average number of points per sentence less 
than 2.2. 

The small average per sentence in good editorial writing 
today is significant. The editorials published in the better 
newspapers and magazines are often rapidly produced ; yet 
they must be clear, direct, often exact in details of expres- 
sion, always interesting enough to satisfy a varied and 
sometimes critical circle of readers. They are in many 
cases not less than artistic. Their economical punctuation, 
especially the small average number of points per sentence, 
is made possible by straightforward expression, with strict 
economy of parenthetical or otherwise elaborate structure. 
In this respect their example is entirely good. 



Terminal and Other Points 245 

Of all the passages recorded in the table, the most elabo- 
rately pointed happens to be one from Pater's Essay on 
Style, the one in which students read of the rhythm which 
gives its musical value to every syllable, of vraie verite, 
of self-restraint and the removal of surplusage, of the sen- 
tence "so fortunately born, 'entire, smooth, and round,' 
that it needs no punctuation." 

Next in elaborateness is Mr. Henry James. In the pas- 
sage cited, there is free omission of parenthetical points; 
yet the average number of points per sentence is very high 
— 6.8 plus, as against less than 2.5 for most of the periodi- 
cals. The elaborate punctuation may help to explain the 
indifference in which Mr. James's writings are held by 
many whose literary interest is far from narrow. 

The percentage next lowest after that for Mr. James is 
fox* a passage from Carlyle: 23.1 per cent of terminal 
points. Carlyle 's omission of points for parenthesis, adjec- 
tive series, and appositives may seem the height of economy ; 
but in general his pointing is heavy and emphatic. 

The Carlyle flavor in the mechanics of style is due in 
considerable measure to the frequency of hyphens and 
capitals. The following passage (from Heroes, and Hero- 
Worship, Chapman and Hall's London edition, 1885, page 
147) is typical of Carlyle 's punctuation, though inadequate 
to illustrate his free use of capitals. 

One remembers alwa} T s that story of the shoes at Oxford: the 
rough, seamy-faced, rawboned College Servitor stalking about, 
in winter-season, with his shoes worn-out; how the charitable 
Gentleman Commoner secretly places a new pair at his door; and 
the rawboned Servitor, lifting them, looking at them near, with 
his dim eyes, with what thoughts, — pitches them out of window! 
Wet feet, mud, frost, hunger or what you will; but not beggary: 
we cannot stand beggary! Rude stubborn self-help here; a 
whole world of squalor, rudeness, confused misery and want, 



246 Modem Punctuation 

yet of nobleness and manfulness withal. It is a type of the 
man's life, this pitching-away of the shoes. An original man; — 
not a secondhand, borrowing or begging man. Let us stand on 
our own basis, at any rate! On such shoes as we ourselves 
can get. On frost and mud, if you will, but honestly on that;— 
on the reality and substance which Nature gives us, not on the 
semblance, on the thing she has given another than us ! — 

Rude stubborn self-help is a rapid group which a modern 
purist in punctuation might interrupt with a comma. But 
for the most part the passage is pointed with a lavishness 
not often matched in good writing today. The eight sen- 
tences carry 38 structural points or combinations : 4 periods, 
3 exclamation marks, 1 exclamation mark with dash, 21 
commas, 4 semicolons, 2 semicolons with dash, 1 comma 
with dash, 2 colons. The average number of interior breaks 
per sentence is 3.75. With the sentence points added, the 
average number of points or combinations per sentence is 
4.75. The Carlyle passage for which figures are given in 
the table shows a lower average of points per sentence, but 
is similar in tone and effect. 

The use of strange hyphened compounds, with marked 
effects on suggested accent, is a striking characteristic of 
Carlylese mechanics. With his shoes worn-out, this pitch- 
ing-away of the shoes, sprawl-out, putting -in the woof, 
Heroes have gone-out, Quacks have come-in, your Able-man 
— these are characteristic. The hyphenations and the Ger- 
man style of capitalization have much to do with the pe- 
culiarities of Carlyle 's manner. 

Even without the extremes represented by the passages 
from Pater, Mr. James, and Carlyle, the sentence-point 
percentages vary sharply. They range from 28.8 for Mr. 
Paul Elmer More to 63 for Mr. Samuel McChord Crothers. 
In the passage cited Mr. More uses about 3.47 points per 



Terminal and Other Points 247 

sentence, Mr. G. K. Chesterton about 2.54, the Nation about 
2.35, the Saturday Evening Post just under 2.1, the New 
York Tribune and Mr. Crothers about 1.88 and 1.59. 

The differences are due partly to material and purpose, 
partly to differences of temper or varying degrees of lit- 
erary skill. Mr. More, for example, is less careful of his 
medium than of his thought. Certainly he is less persua- 
sive than he might be if he were more careful of style — as 
careful, say, as Miss Agnes Repplier or Mr. Arnold Ben- 
nett. Mr. More 's elaborate sentence structure requires more 
than twice as many points per sentence as are used by Mr. 
Crothers. 

Just below Mr. More, with an average of about 3.41, are 
the editorials from the Christian Science Monitor. The 
large average here is partly explained by the small variety 
of points — only periods, commas, question marks, and a 
few semicolons, with dependence in unusual degree upon 
that greatly overburdened point the comma. Of all the 
writers and journals listed in this chapter, except Pater, 
Mr. Henry James comes nearest to the comma percentage of 
the Monitor. 

The last fifteen passages in the list — with the highest 
sentence-point averages and the smallest numbers of points 
per sentence — represent five newspapers, three weekly 
periodicals, and seven individual writers: Emerson, and 
Messrs. H. G. Wells, Arnold Bennett, G. K. Chesterton, 
Samuel McChord Crothers, Albert Elmer Hancock, and 
William Allen White. Though varied enough in tone and 
style, they are alike in keeping the average number of 
points per sentence well below three. Emerson's style is 
essentially modern, that of Mr. Crothers almost ultra- 
modern. 

Obviously no safe deductions can be made from the num- 
ber of points per sentence except in relation to the other 



248 Modem Punctuation 

things that contribute to the effect. The passages with 
the lowest averages of points per sentence are not necessarily- 
better than those with higher averages. The North American 
Review editorials are not less effective than those of the 
Saturday Evening Post or the New York Tribune; nor is 
Miss Repplier's writing inferior in art or persuasiveness 
to that of the writers who use only three fifths as many 
points per sentence. In general, an average exceeding 
three points per sentence is likely to be a sign of heavy 
structure; but within limits of reasonable economy there 
is much latitude. 

In most of the passages listed in Table B the most fre- 
quent point is the comma. The exceptions are the pas- 
sages from Mr. Hancock (periods 45.6, commas 42), Mr. 
Crothers (periods 60.3, commas 33.7), the Saturday Even- 
ing Post editorials (periods 46.9, commas 39.2), and the 
New York Tribune editorials (periods 49.4, commas 41). 
In the aggregate of the 20,000 points represented in the 
table, commas outnumber periods 9801 to 7852. This is 
partly because the comma is the most versatile of all struc- 
tural points and usually the lightest. 

In the passages here represented, periods outnumber 
question marks 7852 to 312, about 20 times. They out- 
number exclamation marks more than 50 times. But in a 
few of the writings listed, question and exclamation marks 
make a considerable proportion of the less frequent 
marks — 3 per cent for Mr. Harvey, 3.3 for the New 
York Times, 3.7 for the New York Tribune, 6.5 for Mr. 
Galsworthy. 

Third in frequency is the semicolon. Omitting a few 
cases of semicolon with dash, the semicolons number 899; 
the 616 dashes plus 66 cases of comma with dash make 682. 
In the aggregate of 20,000 points the semicolons make 
nearly 4.5 per cent; the dashes plus the reinforced dashes 



Relative Frequency of Points 



249 



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•ued'sns qilA* 
uopBtnBpxg 



spoi.T9d 
uoisuadsns 



S8AJH3 



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• IQ • "* CO • i— I CO <N "— " 



suoior> 
^jojBdpnuy 



t^. .(OOOt)<hOOiONIN C5 CO ^ 00 <-h t* 00 CM <D m io 

(Mi— IH ,_, ,_( ,-h uj t— 

l-H t- 



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co co co oo >— • • • i-t 



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— i <M 04 <N (M CO io . 



^h <N O r*< ITS lO CO 00 00 O ©4 «© «D 00 

TFO'-' CO ^iHrHFHWfO^rtO 



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saoioDiraas 



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saoiooiraag 



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UO»OCO«OC500COlOOTf< 



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Tt* t^. t- «D CO <M CO CO r-H CO CO O CO CO IG «© CO CM T* t- OS UO 
CO CO r-H CO t* 

l-H © 



SJUJOJ 

aoxjBOiBpxa 



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COb-CSiOT^CSCOOCOcocO rt^COOi— i«0005W»ON«0 
CO ^ ^ ,_, ,_, CO CO .-i CO CO i-i CO i-H ^ w 



SBinrao3 



NhOOCHOO^hntJ OOMNXHhONh 

coiouOxtfo^tfiT^o^sD mTtcoiOT^oo^iooo 



9P0IJ8J 



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OrJ^oiirjr^.oOT^^OiO^Hi-H 
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250 Modem Punctuation 

make 3.41 per cent. This is in spite of the fact that the 
dash is often used in pairs. 

In a few of the passages the semicolon yields third place 
to other points. In those from Mr. Crothers, the New York 
Times, and the New Republic, the question mark ranks 
third. In that from the New York Evening Post, the semi- 
colon and dash divide honors for third place, with 3 per 
cent each. In those from the New York American, the New 
York Tribune, Mr. Arnold Bennett, and Mr. William Allen 
White, the dashes (including all cases of comma with dash) 
outnumber the semicolons. But in twelve of the twenty 
writers and periodicals the semicolon ranks third in fre- 
quency. 

Anticipatory colons, as before a quotation or list, out- 
number other colons 155 to 21. The two kinds together 
are not nearly equal in number to the question marks (176 
to 312) and are not greatly in excess of curves (176 to 
139). This is in spite of the fact that in the works listed 
there are a good many paragraph quotations preceded by 
colons. According to the decided weight of usage today, 
the colon is specialized as an anticipatory mark, and even 
as such is not often used in ordinary text except before 
quotations. 

The use of the colon to call attention to a following re- 
mark not quoted is comparatively infrequent because likely 
to be too formal and self-satisfied, as if the writer were 
heralding his own words too loudly. Yet in certain popular 
periodicals this use of the colon is so common as to be a 
mannerism. If rapidity and informality are desired, the 
paragraph-suspension colon should frequently give place to 
the period. 

It is clear that curves are not often required in ordinary 
writing. The average percentage of curves in the twenty 
passages cited is not quite seven tenths of one per cent. 



Editorial Pointing 



251 



eh a 

° S 5 

W ^ .5 

5 ** -a 

H o i> 

a bo 

a a 



o 
an 

o 
o 

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I I + 1 I I I I + 

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uoiooiraag 



uoi}BtaB[oxa 



110138911? 



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t- (OiOiOiOiOiOiOiOTliN .• 



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233 






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252 Modern Punctuation 

Curves are seldom used now for parenthetical clauses, 
being reserved principally for casual asides and for ap- 
position within comma-pointed series. 

If there were estimates for the novels of Mrs. Edith 
Wharton, Mr. Robert Herrick, Mr. Arnold Bennett, or 
Mr. H. G. Wells, the aggregate figures for suspension 
periods would be larger. As the works cited in this table 
are mostly didactic rather than imaginative, the figures 
for suspension periods (3 cases in 20,000 points) are too 
low to be representative of contemporary literature as a 
whole. 

Table C is a repetition of certain figures from Tables A 
and B. The figures represent, within the limits noted, the 
editorial practice of one monthly magazine, three weekly 
magazines, and six newspapers. 

The average number of points per sentence ranges from 
more than 3.4, an unusually high average for newspaper 
writing, to less than 1.9. The mean average is just over 
2.34. 

The points in order of frequency are period, comma, 
semicolon, dash, terminal question mark, anticipatory colon, 
terminal exclamation mark, curves, comma with dash, in- 
terior exclamation mark, interior question mark, non- 
anticipatory colon, and semicolon with dash. The eight 
cases of comma with dash and the one case of semicolon 
with dash occur in the North American Review. There are 
some newspapers which use colon with dash instead of colon 
alone before extracts separately paragraphed; but the 
union of comma with dash is not newspaper style. Accord- 
ing to the weight of expert authority it ought not to be 
book style either. 

The interior question and exclamation marks (.06 and .04 
per cent) are in most cases used at the ends of quotations. 



Some Extremes of Punctuation 



253 



As series or compounding points they are rare in recent 
books and almost unknown in newspapers. 

Those who advocate the smallest possible variety of struc- 
tural points may have noticed that editorial writers use 
fewer kinds than some authors. Except for sporadic cases 
the editorials here listed do not use the compounding colon 
or the comma with dash ; they do not use suspension periods 
at all. But they make moderate use of semicolons, dashes, 
colons, curves, and exclamation and question marks. These 
are far less often needed than commas or periods, but for 
their proper purposes are indispensable. 

The following table shows some extremes of elaborate- 
ness, simplicity, and emotionality in punctuation. 

TABLE D 

Some Extremes of Punctuation 





T3 
O 

OJ 


M 
u 

a 

a 
.2 

X 

a 
O 1 


a 

I 

a 
o 

a 

a 

S 


CO 

03 

Q 


A 
3 

A 

5 
B 
o 
O 


a 
o 
"o 
V 

a 

OQ 


a 
a 

o 


a 



o 
O 


CD 

a 
5 

a 
© 

(J 


> 

o 


o 

.3T3 
W o 

087* 
QaS 

■- W 
0J (A 


u 

o 

O a) 

3 03 


a 

Sn 

+-> w 
03 aj 

Is 
SI 


3 

.2* 

ll 

d 53 


■73 

•3-0 
*j o 

*s 

3^ 
.2 3 
~ O 

2* 

S 3 

Si 

•^02 


Walter Pater 

Henry James 

Horace Traubel. . . . 

Harold Bell Wright 

Molly Make-Believe 

(dialogue) 


13.1 
14.0 
79.0 
28.7 

18.6 


.4 

.7 
80 
1.5 

5.8 


1.0 
.2 

"i 

10.8 


3.1 
9.7 

l6'. 6 

19.2 


.1 
.2 


3.8 
8.6 

6'.4 

2.0 


75.1 

62.7 

9.5 

51.1 

39.2 


1.0 

.9 

3.5 

1.8 

.4 


.6 


14 
32 


.3 
1.4 


.1 

.8 


.4 


.6 


.6 



* Alone or reinforcing a terminal period. 



The percentages for Pater and Mr. Henry James are re- 
peated, with additional specification, from Table A. 

Those for Mr. Horace Traubel, representing 200 points, 
are based on a passage in the Conservator for April, 1912, 



254 Modern Punctuation 

beginning after the sentence break in line 1 of page 27, 
and ending with line 16 of page 28. 

Those for Mr. Harold Bell Wright, representing 1000 
points, are for Their Yesterdays (omitting "What They 
Found in Their Yesterdays") to the second comma break 
in line 11 of page 47. 

The figures for Molly Make-Believe, by Eleanor Hallo- 
well Abbott, represent the pointing of dialogue only. The 
passages, containing 500 points, are pages 89-100, 116-152, 
and the first 12 lines of page 153. Sentences containing 
any narrative matter (even "he said") are omitted from 
the estimate. 

It has already been noticed that Pater's pointing is very 
elaborate, the sentences represented by the figures above 
carrying an average of more than 7 points each. The 
commas alone reach the very high percentage of 75.1. The 
Essay on Style is very carefully finished, but is at best a 
piece of belles-lettres. 

Next to Pater in average number of points per sentence 
is Mr. Henry James. The passage from A Small Boy and 
Others upon which the figures are based has an average 
of about 6.8 points per sentence. The other noticeable fea- 
tures are the large percentages of dashes (9.7), of semi- 
colons (8.6), and of curves (3.2). 

Pater and Mr. James are extreme in elaborateness of 
pointing. The opposite extreme of simplicity, so far as 
shown in any of the tables, appears in the passage from 
Mr. Horace Traubel. Of the 200 points there are only 
four kinds: 158 periods, 16 question marks, 19 commas, 
and 7 colons. The number of points per sentence is not 
quite 1.15. An ordinary newspaper editorial average is 
almost double this figure. 

The effect of Mr. Traubel's pointing upon tone and 
movement may be judged from the following passage, from 



Wasted Dashes 255 

page 28 of the Conservator for April, 1912. The extract is 
from a review of Mr. Archibald Henderson's biography of 
George Bernard Shaw. 

This is primarily an age of love and romance. An age in 
which love is becoming earth big at last and romance is becoming 
social at last. An age in which love and romance have become 
imperative as never before. Yet Henderson speaking of Shaw 
does not say love. Is that Henderson's fault or Shaw's fault or 
my fault? Or is it nobody's fault? Is it just the situation? 
Shaw dont account for the fool. He accounts for the wise men. 
For the fools. But not for the fool. ... I dont know whether 
his book takes me any nearer Shaw. But it takes me nearer 
myself. And that's the chief thing. Nearer the letter and spirit 
of the space and years I live in. That's the chief thing. No 
real democrat could be modest. That's why Shaw talks like an 
ass of himself. That's why Henderson takes the ass seriously. 
That's why I look the ass in the face and bray. 

If the style of Mr. Harold Bell Wright is fairly rep- 
resented by Their Yesterdays, the most striking char- 
acteristic of his pointing is an extravagant use of dashes. 
The average number of points per sentence (3.2 plus) is 
not extravagantly high, is in fact lower than the figures 
shown in Table A for Pater, Mr. James, Carlyle, Mr. Paul 
Elmer More, and the Christian Science Monitor editorials. 
Mr. Wright uses a larger percentage of dashes than any 
writer or periodical listed in the first three tables. In 
Table D he is exceeded in proportion of dashes only by 
the dialogue passages from Molly Make-Believe, a book 
which might fairly be termed the height of extremity in 
emotional pointing, even for dialogue. A little below Mr. 
Wright in proportion of dashes is Mr. Henry James. In 
general Mr. James and Mr. Wright are as far apart as the 
poles. 



256 Modern Punctuation 

The peculiarly sentimental quality of Mr. Wright's style, 
so far as mechanics are concerned, is in part due to lavish 
use of capitals, as in this paragraph from page 9 of Their 
Yesterdays: 

Dreams, Occupation, Knowledge, Ignorance, Religion, Tradi- 
tion, Temptation, Life, Death, Failure, Success, Love, Memories: 
these are the Thirteen Truly Great Things of Life — found by 
the man and the woman in their grown up days — found by 
them in Their Yesterdays — and they found no others. 

Molly Make-Believe (1910), a book more widely read 
than historians of American literature would be glad to 
admit, is notable for its riotous use of emotional points. In 
the passages of dialogue here listed the periods are out- 
numbered by the dashes. Question and exclamation marks 
run to 5.8 and 10.8 per cent respectively; and there are 
suspension periods, commas with dashes, and dashes in 
combination with periods, with question marks, even with 
exclamation points. The emotional points — dashes alone 
or in combination, suspension periods, question and ex- 
clamation marks — make together 39.8 per cent of the points. 
Dialogue may be expected to run higher in strong points 
than narrative matter, but the proportion in Molly Make- 
Believe is extreme. One of the dramatis personae is a 
highly romantic girl ; the others in the passages for which 
figures are taken are men, one of them an old man. 

A full account of. the mechanics of Molly Make-Believe 
would have much to say of capitals, italic, dashes within 
words, hesitation hyphens, and strange hyphened com- 
pounds; also of the ever-present em dashes, question and 
exclamation marks, and a considerable number of double 
dashes. One cannot help wondering what the compositors 
thought as they put the book into type. 



WORKS LISTED IN TABLES A, B, AND C 

Bennett, Abnold. The Author's Craft. George H. Doran Co., New 
York, 1914. Page 9 to the paragraph break on page 57. 

Cablyle, Thomas. Heroes, and Hero-Worship. Chapman & Hall, 
London, 1885. Lecture 5, " The Hero as Man of Letters," page 127 
to line 7 from end of page 139. 

Chesterton, Gilbebt K. Heretics, sixth edition. John Lane Co., 
New York, 1909. Page 11 to line 8 from end of page 50. 

The Christian Science Monitor, Boston. Editorials for November 9, 
1917, 400 points; February 8, 1918, first two columns, and first 30 
points of column 3; May 24, 1918, first three columns. 

Crothebs, Samuel McChobd. The Pleasures of an Absentee Land- 
lord and Other Essays. Houghton Mifflin Co., Boston, 1916. Pages 
1-49, 150-159, and the first 2 points on page 160. 

Emebson, Ralph Waldo. Essays: Second Series (vol. Ill, River- 
side Edition of the Complete Works). Houghton Mifflin Co., Boston, 
1884. Pages 49-78, and page 79 to the sentence break in line 11. 

The Evening Post, New York. Editorials (not including matter 
with the heading "At a Venture") for January 23, 1918, first 375 
points; February 1 and 16; March 26, first 22 points. 

Galswobthy, John. A Sheaf. Charles Scribner's Sons, New 
York, 1916. Page 327 to line 4 of page 365. 

Given, John L. Making a Newspaper. Henry Holt & Co., New 
York, 1907. Pages 240-273, and first 19 lines of page 274. 

Hancock, Albebt Elmeb. John Keats. Houghton Mifflin Co., 
Boston, 1908. Pages 1-36, and page 37 to the sentence break in line 6. 

James, Henby. A Small Boy and Others. Charles Scribner's 
Sons, New York, 1913. Pages 1-36, and the first 16 lines of page 37. 

Mobe, Paul Elmer. Aristocracy and Justice. Houghton Mifflin 
Co., Boston, 1915. Pages 3-56. 

The Nation, New York. Editorials for January, 1918, beginning 
with " The Week " and ending with the dash following the word 
Gibraltar in the second column of page 83; for May 18, 1918, begin- 
ning with second column of page 585, ending with line 16 of second 
column on page 588. 

The New Republic, New York. Editorials for January 26, 1918, 
beginning with page 356, to line 6 from end of first column of page 
364; February 2, 1918, page 3 from first paragraph break, pages 5-7, 
and page 8, first column, to line 22 from end. 

The New York American. Editorials, 1918: January 30; Feb- 
ruary 1 and 7; February 8, omitting first paragraph of column 2; 
March 11, 22, 23; March 30, first 102 points; May 15. 

The New York Times. Editorials, 1918: June 3, first 18 points; 
June 6, 7, 8. 

257 



258 Modern Punctuation 

The New York Tribune. Editorials 1918: February 1, 14, 21; 
March 18, to fifth paragraph break in second column. 

The North American Review, New York. Editorials by Mr. George 
Harvey: October, 1917, pages 502-520; January, 1918, pages 2-8, and 
page 9 to the sentence break in line 9. 

Nicholson, Meredith. The Provincial American and Other Pa- 
pers. Houghton Mifflin Co., Boston, 1912. Pages 117-172, and first 
19 points on page 173. 

Pater, Walter. Appreciations, with an Essay on Style. The 
Macmillan Co., New York, edition with title-page date 1906. Pages 
1-27, and page 28 to second comma in line 3 from end. 

Repplier, Agnes. Counter-Currents. Houghton Mifflin Co., Bos- 
ton, 1916. Pages 1-61, 64, and first 2 points on page 65. 

The Saturday Evening Post, Philadelphia. Editorials: September 
8, 1917, first 200 points; December 1; January 5, 1918, first 200 
points; February 2; March 16, first two columns, and first 43 points 
in third column. 

The Sun, New York. Editorials, 1918: March 28; April 1, 20; 
June 3; June 4, first two columns, and first 23 points in third 
column. 

Wells, H. G. What Is Coming? The Macmillan Co., New York, 
1916. Page 1 to the last sentence break on page 45. 

White, William Allen. The Old Order Chang eth. The Mac- 
millan Co., New York, 1910. Page 1 to line 10 from end of page 44. 



INDEX 



Abbott, Eleanor Hallowell, 253, 
256. 

Abbreviation pointing, 168 flF. 

Absolute phrases, 49, 102, 105. 

Accent, 177. 

Accuracy, 5. 

Ade, George, 165 f. 

Adjectives in apposition, 96 f. 

Adverbial groups, 100 ff.; in ap- 
position, 96 f . ; modifying 
verb, position, 90. 

" Afterthought " matter, 102, 
114 ff. 

Alden, Henry Mills, 101 f. 

Aldus Manutius, 15. 

Alford, Henry, 29, 121, 189, 225. 

And, 71. 

Antithesis, 67, 202. 

Apostrophe, 30, 158, 170 ff. 

Apposition, appositives, 83, 95 ff., 
102, 117, 126. See also Quota- 
tions. 

Articles, 149 f. 

Asterism, 19. 

Asterisk, asterisks, 19, 136, 157, 
183. 

Atherton, Gertrude, 96. 

Atlantic Monthly, 10, 105, 140, 
151, 159. 

Authors, influence of, 15 f. 

Babbitt, Irving, 39, 97, 108, 112. 

Bacon, Francis, 188. 

Bailey, John, 75, 87, 147, 160, 

161, 196. 
Balance, 79, 80, 81, 201 f. 
Balfour, A. J., 126. 
Batchelder, E. A., 44. 
Bates, Arlo, 91. 
Beckford, William, 70. 
Bennett, Arnold, 12, 39, 41, 50 f., 

55, 62, 64, 68, 76, 87 f., 104, 



120, 133, 147, 156, 158, 183, 

199, 237, 243, 247, 249, 250. 
Beveridge, A. J., 162 f. 219. 
Bible, 168, 188. 
Bleyer, W. G., 57, 84. 
Blythe, S. G., 198. 
Boynton, Percy H., 190, 200, 222. 
Brackets, 30, 109, 113, 158, 163, 

239 f . ; for division numbers, 

240; for interpolation, 239; for 

secondary parenthesis, 240 ; 

single bracket, 240; with other 

points, 240. 
Bradley, Henry, 101. 
Brewster, William Tenney, 67, 

213, 236, 238. 
Brown, Goold, 136. 
Buck, P. M., Jr., 118, 152, 154, 

239. 
But, 71. See also Not and but. 
Butler, Samuel, 59, 70, 78, 175, 

183, 187, 191. 

Cairns, W. B., 151, 152. 

Capitalization, capitals, 20, 
164 ff.; Carlyle's, 245 f.; for 
clearness, 165; following colon, 
65 f., 194 f.; for emphasis, 165; 
beginning quotation, 160, 162; 
respectful, 165; satirical, 165; 
for special designation, 147, 
148; topical, 165; Harold Bell 
Wright's, 256. 

Carlyie, Thomas, 14 f., 242, 243, 
244, 245 f ., 255. 

Carman, Bliss, 80. 

Century Dictionary, 24. 

Chapman, John Jay, 95, 125, 
137. 

Chesterton, G. K., 12, 40, 72, 86, 
94, 104, 109, 111, 118, 120 f., 
130, 181, 196, 199, 201 f., 202, 



259 



260 



Index 



204, 207, 220, 223, 243, 247, 
249. 

Chicago Daily News, 136, 145. 

Chicago, University of. See Uni- 
versity of Chicago Press. 

Christian Science Monitor, 243, 
244, 247, 251, 255. 

Citation. See Quotations. 

Clarendon Press, 159. 

Clark, Barrett H., 223. 

Clauses, appositive, 97; bal- 
anced, 81 f.; elliptical, 68, 83, 
98 ; main, 48 ff., 67 ff . ; paren- 
thetical, lllff.; relative, 86, 
94 f. ; series, 79, 81; subordi- 
nate, 48 ff., 68, 83 f., 212. See 
also Compounding. 

Claxton, P. P., and McGinnis, 
James, 188, 198. 

Clearness, 3, 4, 17, 36 f . 

Climax, 79. 

" Closeness of relation," 67. 

Cobb, Irvin S., 12, 67, 198. 

Colby, F. M., 97, 115, 128, 156. 

Collier's Weekly, 97. 

Collison-Morley, Lacy, 72. 

Colon, 29, 64 ff., 92, 93, 99, 104, 
115, 131, 134, 153 f., 157, 

192 ff . ; anticipatory, 82, 

193 ff.; arbitrary uses, 197; 
capital following, 82; com- 
pounding, 69, 75, 77, 195 f.; 
paragraph-suspension, 54 f . ; 
series, 121, 196 f.; with other 
points, 197. 

Columbia University Printing 
Office, 159, 163, 170, 232. 

Comma, 29, 69, 89, 92, 99, 104, 
107, 111, 112, 113, 114, 121, 
125, 133, 134, 152, 153, 154, 
155, 156, 159, 170, 205 ff.; com- 
pounding, 72ff., 76 ff., 79 f., 
208 ff.; "ellipsis," 136 f., 
222 f . ; with limiting- and mod- 
ifying groups, 217 ff . ; miscel- 
laneous and mechanical uses, 
224; paragraph-suspension, 54; 
with preliminary, parentheti- 
cal, and afterthought matter, 
217 ff.; with quotations, 220 f ; 
with series, 119, 123 f., 212 ff ; 



for special grouping, 221 f.; 
with other points, 224, 233. 

Common dependence, 124 ff. 

Common modifier, 80. 

Communication, 25 f . 

Compounding (clause coordina- 
tion ) , 69 ff. ; with grammati- 
cal connective, 71 ff.; with log- 
ical connective, 76 ff . ; without 
connective, 78 ff. See also 
Colon, Comma, Dash, Exclama- 
tion mark, Question mark, 
Semicolon. 

Compound words. See Hyphen, 
compounding. 

Concise Oxford Dictionary, 169. 

Congressional Record, 145. 

Conjunctions. See Connectives. 

Connectives, 71, 77, 81, 100, 120, 
201, 211, 212. 

Convention, 5, 33 ff. 

Conway, Sir Martin, 161, 216. 

Cook, A. S., 65, 166. 

Cooper, F. T., 76, 132. 

Coordination, appearance of, 80. 
See also Compounding and 
Series. 

" Correctness," 4, 6. 

Correlation, correlatives, 80, 128, 
130 f. 

Crothers, Samuel McChord, 147, 
155, 199, 218, 243, 244, 246, 
247 248 249. 

Curves, 29', 92, 93, 107, 110, 111, 
112, 113, 116, 119, 158, 234 ff.; 
for afterthought groups, 236; 
for credits, 236; for division 
numbers, 105 f., 236 f.; for in- 
terpolation, 162, 237; for 
parenthetical groups, 107 ff., 
234 f . ; for sentences, 53 f ., 236 ; 
with other points, 237 ff. 

Custom. See Convention. 

Dash, 27, 29, 92, 93, 99, 104, 107, 
110, 111, 112, 113, 114, 115. 119, 
121, 125, 127, 131, 134, 153, 154, 
158, 183, 224 ff., 255 f.; with 
afterthought groups, 115, 
230 f . ; for compounding, 69 f ., 
75 f ., 83, 227 ; for ellipsis, 164, 



Index 



261 



226 f.; en dash. 29, 176, 231; 
as mid-paragraph point, 59; 
for paragraph-suspension, 55; 
for preliminary and paren- 
thetical matter, 105 ff ., 228 ff. ; 
for series, 119, 121, 227 f.; 
for special grouping, 131 ff., 
225 f.; terminal, 63, 64, 225; 
semi-mechanical uses, 231; 
with other points, 231 ff. 

Dates, 108, 223. 

Debates, reports pf, 145. 

Deland, Margaret, 153, 158. 

Design, 44 f., 141. 

De Vinne, Theodore L., 10, 13 f., 
15, 35, 141, 143 f., 148 f., 170, 
173, 174 f., 194, 221. 

Dial, 22, 76 f., 196. 

Dialogue, paragraphing in, 58. 

Dickinson, T. H., 144. 

Eaton, Walter Prichard, 132, 235. 

Economy, 4, 45 f ., 244. 

Editorial points, 23 f . 

Editorial writing, punctuation 
in, 14, 244, 252 f. 

Educational Review, 16, 17. 

Ellipsis, 2, 135 ff., 141, 162 ff. 

Elliptical groups, 49. 

Em dash. See Dash. 

Emerson, R. W., 243, 247. 

Emerton, Ephraim, 217. 

Emphasis, 3 f ., 4, 17, 37 ff., 42, 
49, 57, 88, 114, 115, 131 ff., 
143, 153, 165, 166; special, 
131 ff. 

Encyclopedia Britannica, 236. 

Erskine, John, 63, 126. 

Etc., 163, 224. 

Etymological pointing, 24, 168 ff . 

Evening Post, New York, 61, 99, 
123, 156, 198, 217, 221 f., 229, 
235, 243, 248, 249, 251. 

Evening Sun, New York, 79, 80, 
90, 195. 

Everybody's Magazine, 65 ; 191. 

Exclamation mark, 28, 104, 105, 
106, 156, 160, 189 ff.; interior, 
70, 190 f.; interpolated, 109, 
191 f.; terminal, 61 ff., 189 f.; 
with other points, 192. 



Exclamations, 102. 
Extracts. See Quotations. 
Extremes of punctuation, 253 ff. 

Figures, grouping of, 137 f . ; for 

words, 169. 
Font of punctuation mark, 45. 
Footnotes, 178 f. 
For, 71. 

Foreign phrases, 147, 166. 
Francis, Charles, 177. 
Frequency of points, 241 ff. 

Galsworthy, John, 12, 135, 183, 
191, 203, 204, 226, 243, 248, 
249. 

Garrison, Wendell Phillips, 10, 
105, 203, 212, 231. 

Genitive case, 170 f., 172. 

Genung, J. F., 129. 

Given, John L., 23, 95, 198, 243, 
249. 

Globe, New York, 51, 99, 150, 
219. 

Government Printing Office, 240. 

Grammar, relation to punctua- 
tion, 6, 31 f. 

" Grammatical " points, 9 f ., 
24 ff. 

Greenough, J. B., and Kittredge, 
G. L., 147. 

Grouping, 21 f.; special, 131 ff. 

Hackett, Francis B., 117 f. 
Hancock, A. E., 226, 230, 243, 

247, 248, 249. 

Harper's Monthly Magazine, 153, 

157, 158, 160. 
Harvey, George, 12, 165, 214, 243, 

248, 249, 251. 

Hazen, Charles Lowner, 99, 209, 

215 222. 
Henry, Frank S., 135, 218. 
Herrick, Robert, 62, 183, 196, 

227, 237, 250. 
Hesitation, 135 f., 225 f. See also 

Periods, suspension. 
Hill, David Jayne, 153. 
Hobbs, W. H., 62, 130. 
Holliday, Carl, 187 f. 
Husband, T. F. and M. F. A., 10. 



262 



Index 



Hyde, G. M., 92, 146. 

Hyphens, Carlyle's, 246; com- 
pounding, 13 f., 31, 172 f., 
175 ff.; division, 31, 172 ff.; 
suspension, 131, 132, 134 f., 
177. 

Indention, 56. 

Indexes, 178 f. 

Infinitive-phrase subject, 222. 

Interjections, 191. 

Intermediate matter. Sec Limit- 
ing and modifying groups, 
Parenthesis. 

Interpolation, 109, 141, 162 ff., 
187 f. See also Brackets, 
Curves. 

Interrogation, interrogation point. 
See Question mark. 

Interruption pointing, 132 ff., 
225 f. 

Irony, 109 f., 191 f. 

Italic, 20, 146 f., 148, 149, 166 ff. 

James, Henry, 243, 245, 247, 253, 

254, 255. 
Jenson, Nicholas, 15. 
Jonson, Ben, 188. 
Judge, 229. 

Ker, W. P., 68, 74, 77, 87, 88, 97, 

101, 105. 
Kittredge, G. L. See Greenough, 

J. B. 
Klein, William Livingston, 17 f., 

98, 103. 
Krapp, George Philip, 184. 

Leacock, Stephen, 155 f., 233, 

238. 
Leaders, 184. 
Leonard, S. A., 17. 
Leonard, W. E., 187. 
Letters, in italic, 167; section, 

184. 
Lewis, Roger, 183. 
Limiting and modifving groups, 

85 ff., 124. 
Lindsay, Vachel, 64 f., 182, 220. 
Logan, J. D., 11 f. 
" Long subject," 2, 15, 133 f. 



Lounsbury, Thomas R., 63, 84, 
87, 92, 100, 104, 108, 111 f., 
113, 129, 133, 140, 160, 167, 
210. 

Lower-case. See Capitalization. 

McGinnis, James. See Claxton, 
P. P. 

McMurtrie, Douglas C, 231 f. 

Macy, John, 187, 190, 192, 210, 
218, 220, 235. 

Main-clause points. See Com- 
pounding. 

Mair, G. H., 100, 188. 

Manly, J. M., and Powell, J. A., 
125. 

Marcosson, Isaac F., 194. 

Marquis, Don, 132 f. 

Mead, W. E., 104, 113. 

Mid -paragraph, 58 f. 

Miller, R. D., 12, 71, 76. 

Modifiers. See Limiting and 
modifying groups. 

Monotony, 47. 

Monroe, Paul, 109. 

Montague, Margaret P., 53 f., 
134. 

Moore, Ernest Carroll, 77. 

More, Paul Elmer, 50, 77, 82, 
113 f., 134, 196, 201, 229, 230, 
243, 246, 247, 249, 255. 

Morley, John, 100, 101, 105, 110, 
111, 129, 212. 

Moses, Montrose J., 195. 

Movement, 4, 40 ff., 241. 

Moxon, Joseph, 15. 

Murray, Sir James, 138. 

Namely, etc., 98, 195. 

Names, grouping of, 137 f., 223; 

proper, 165. 
Nation, New York, 123 f ., 198, 

243, 244, 247, 249, 251. 
Neilson, W. A., 137. 
New English Dictionary, 19, 168, 

170 f. 
New Republic, 198, 243, 244, 250, 

249, 251. 
Newspaper writing, 60, 107. 

See also Editorial pointing; 

Series, one conjunction. 



Index 



263 



New Standard Dictionary, 24, 

173. 
New York American, 198, 243, 

249, 250, 251. 

New York Times, 48, 58, 83, 123, 
152, 186, 198, 201, 211, 225 f., 
227, 243, 248, 249, 251. 

New York Tribune, 46, 62, 74, 
128, 130, 243, 247, 248, 249, 

250, 251. 

Nicholson, Meredith, 12, 78, 199, 

225, 227, 235, 243, 249. 
Non-restrictive modifiers, 85 ff. 
Nor, 71. 
North American Review, 152, 

177, 190, 198, 214, 228, 243, 

244, 248, 249, 251, 252. 
Not and but, 128, 217. 
Now, 104. 
Numbers, in lists, 105 f.; section, 

184. 
Numerals, compound, 176. 

Omond, T. S., 81 f., 158, 222. 
Or, 71, 98. 
Orcutt, W. D., 99. 
Outlook, 114, 123, 134, 161 f., 
211. 

Paragraph, 50 ff.; ellipsis, 163, 
184; length, 56; movement, 
52 f . ; pointing, 50 ff . ; struc- 
ture, 58 f . ; suspension, 54 ff . ; 
unity, 57. 

Paragraphing, 20, 56 ff. 

Parallelism, 52 f . 

Parentheses. See Curves. 

Parenthesis, 2, 13, 50, 85, 96, 103, 
106 ff., 117, 129; exclamatory, 
191; interpolated, 109, 162, 
188, 191 f.; interrogative, 186; 
objectionable, 107, 113; para- 
graph, 53 f.; marks of, 107 ff., 
229 f ., 234 ; primary and sec- 
ondary, 113 f.; series, end of, 
126. 

Particles. See Suspended par- 
ticles. 

Pater, Walter, 45, 46, 245, 246, 
247, 253, 254, 255. 



Pattee, Fred Lewis, 46, 157, 218, 
221. 

Pauses, suggestion of, 19. 

Period, 28, 93, 120, 121, 156, 159, 
181 ff., 193, 194; abbreviation, 
31, 168 ff., 184; ellipsis, 157, 
183; suspension, 59, 63 f., 70, 
131, 132 f., 158, 160, 182, 183, 
248; terminal, 61, 182; with 
other points, 185. 

Phelps, William Lyon, 187, 
196 f., 202, 238. 

Phrases, 48 f. 

Plurals, 171 f. 

Powell, J. A. See Manly, J. M. 

Preliminary matter, 85, 102, 
103 ff. 

Printers, printers' rules, 4 f ., 15. 

Printing, 25 f., 149. 

Proper adjectives and names, 165. 

Publishers, influence of, 15. 

Punctuation, considerations in, 
33 ff.; difficulty of, 1; elocu- 
tionary, 9 ; extremes of, 253 ff . ; 
logical method of, 13; mean- 
ings of term, 19; modern, 13; 
nature of, 19 ff . ; paragraph, 
relation to, 32, 52 f . ; problems 
of, 33 ff.; rules of, 2 f ., 5, 6; 
structural, 24 f . ; system in, 
13; types of, 241 ff.; works on, 
7 ff . See also Afterthought 
matter, Brackets, Capitals, 
Clearness, Clauses, Colon, 
Comma, Convention, Curves, 
Dash, Design, Economy, El- 
lipsis, Emphasis, Etymological 
pointing, Exclamation mark, 
Grouping, Italic, Limiting and 
modifying groups, Movement, 
Paragraph, Parenthetical mat- 
ter, Period, Preliminary mat- 
ter, Quotations, Quote marks, 
Reference pointing, Semi- 
colon, Sentences, Series, Sus- 
pension, Variety. 

Question, indirect, 61. 

Question mark, 28, 156, 160, 
185 ff.; interior, 186 f.; inter- 
polated or parenthetical, 187; 



264 



Index 



series or compounding, 187; 
terminal, 61 ff., 186; with 
other points, 188 f . 

Quotations, 139 ff. ; ellipsis from, 
141, 162 ff.; indirect, 140; in- 
terruption and resumption of, 
154 ff.; points before, 152; sec- 
ondary, 150 f., 160; self-con- 
scious, 142; series of, 161; 
without quote marks, 143 ff. 

Quote marks, 13, 21, 30, 44 f., 
139 ff., 166; for special desig- 
nation, 146 ff.; omission of 
143 ff.; repetition of, 151 f.; 
with other marks, 156 ff. 

Ralph, Julian, 211. 

Reference pointing, reference in- 
dexes, 44, 46, 178 f. 

Relative clauses. See Clauses. 

Repetition, 118, 121. 

Repplier, Agnes, 12, 32, 53, 71, 
79, 83 f., 94 f., 110, 136 f., 199, 
243, 247 f., 249. 

Restrictive modifiers, 85 ff. 

Rhetoric, rhetorical, 9, 25, 26. 

Rindge, F. H., Jr., 157, 160. 

Robertson, J. G., 87, 88, 91, 147. 

Robinson, James Harvey, 73, 109, 
121, 127, 206 f., 217, 219, 232. 

Rogers, Jason, 112. 

Roman ordinals, 169. 

Roman type, 147, 148, 165, 167. 

Ross, C. G., 235. 

Rourke, Constance M., 16, 206, 
216. 

Salutation of letter, 105, 228 f. 

Santayana, George, 91, 201, 222, 
226. 

Saturday Evening Post, 12, 52, 
71 f., 74 f., 80, 82, 98, 150, 194, 
198, 243, 244, 247, 248, 249, 
251. 

Schelling, F. E., 100. 

Schoolroom tradition, 4, 5 f . 

Seitz, D. C, 143, 155, 198, 228. 

£eZ/-compounds, 176. 

Semicolon, 29, 37, 92, 93, 94, 
121 f., 127, 155, 157, 188, 
197 ff.; appositive, 98,, 203 f.; 



compounding, 69, 72, 74 f., 77, 
81, 200 ff.; paragraph, 54; se- 
ries, 119, 202 f.; with other 
points, 204 f . 

Sentences, 48, 67, 95, 97; com- 
plete, 61 ff.; compound, 2, 
67 ff. ; declarative, 61 f . ; el- 
liptical, 60, 122; exclamatory, 
62 f . ; interrogative, 61 f ., 
185 f.; length, 60 f.; mixed 
type, 63; newspaper, 60; sus- 
pension of, 64 ff . ; terminal 
pointing of, 59 ff. ; terminal- 
point percentages, 242 ff. ; in- 
complete, 63. 

Series, 73, 117 ff., 119; dis- 
guised, 130; end of, 127, 216; 
open, 213 ; suspended, 128 f ., 
216 f . ; with one conjunction, 
73, 123 f., 214 ff.; without con- 
junction, 215 f . 

Shakespeare, William, 13, 188. 

Shaw, George Bernard, 30. 

Sherbow, Benjamin, 52 f., 131. 

Sherman, L. A., 83, 215. 

Sherman, Stuart P., 12, 40, 82, 
115, 121, 146, 152, 162, 196, 
202. 

Shift of structure, 134, 225 f. 

Ships, names of, 147. 

Shuman, E. L., 107. 

Side-heads, 184, 232. 

Simpson, Percy, 12 f. 

Slosson, Edwin E., 59, 96, 217. 

Smith, C. Alphonso, 81. 

Smith, L. P., 94, 95, 111, 167, 
169 f. 

So, with compounding comma, 76, 
78. 

Space, spacing. See White space. 

Spingarn, J. E., 134, 201. 

Splitting of particles. See Sus- 
pended particles. 

Standard Dictionary. See New 
Standard Dictionary. 

Structural punctuation, 23 f ., 25. 

Strunsky, Simeon, 71, 116, 144, 
201. 

Style, 41, 45. 

Sun, New York, 68, 96, 198, 211, 
217, 243, 249, 251. 



Index 



265 



Superior figures and letters, 178. 
Survivals, 27. 
Suspended particles, 129. 
Suspension, 40, 41, 104, 106, 114, 

131 ff., 154, 206 f. 
Suspension periods. See Period, 

suspension. 
Swift, E. J., 38. 
Syllabic points, 9. See Hyphen, 

division. 
Syllables, division into, 173 f. 
Syntax. See Grammar. 

Teall, F. Horace, 232. 
Telegrams, punctuation of, 37. 
Terminal points, 59 ff. 
That (relative pronoun), 94. 
Thayer, W. R., 52. 
Thorndike, A. H., 230. 
Thorpe, Merle, 162. 
Times (London), 150. 
Titles, literary, 147, 148 ff. 
Today, tonight, tomorrow, 177. 
Traditions in punctuation, 4 ff. 
Transitional expressions, 106. 

See also Connectives. 
Transposition, 89 f. 
Traubel, Horace, 253, 254 f. 
Trezise, F. J., 40, 129. 
Typography. See Printing. 

Uniformity. See Convention. 
University of Chicago Press, 18, 

92, 96, 99, 151, 157, 159, 163, 

174, 232, 236. 
Usage. See Convention. 

Vaka, Demetra, 97. 
Variety, 4, 47, 253. 



Verb, in apposition, 96 f . ; object 
of, 23; subject of, 23; sup- 
pression of, 83, 136 f., 222 f. 

Vocatives, 102, 105, 106. 

Ward, C. H., 8, 14 ff., 75. 
War Thrift, 80. 
Watson, William, 75. 
Watterson, Henry, 198. 
Webster's New International 

Dictionary, 24. 
Weight of points, 38 f . 
Wells, H. G., 50, 59, 120, 126, 

160, 183, 188 f., 216, 236, 243, 

247 249 252. 
Wharton, ' Edith, 64, 155, 160, 

183, 220, 252. 
Which (relative pronoun), 94. 
White, William Allen, 198, 220, 

243, 247, 249, 250. 
White space, 25 f., 44, 56, 138. 
Whitlock, Brand, 65, 191. 
Who (relative pronoun), 94. 
Wilson, John, 7 ff., 14, 75, 89, 

98. 
Wilson, Woodrow, 63, 118, 120, 

122, 127 f., 129 f. 
Winchester, C. T., 82, 83. 
Words, as words, 167; with defi- 
nition, 167. 
" Working principles," 3 f. 
World, New York, 90, 91, 185 f. 
World's Work, 183. 
Wright, Harold Bell, 216, 253, 

255 f. 

Yard, R. S., 92, 155. 
Yes, 105. 
Yet, 76f. 



